Bourne Again
by arealgoodtime
Summary: Hope French is the newest sassy diva in development. She has to share an apartment with Evan Bourne, and soon sparks are flying between the two.. but he has a girlfriend who's making life difficult. Can she change that and make him hers? Evan Bourne/OC
1. The Local Talent

Katie Lea Burchill lifted my limp body up, my neck in an inverted face lock. She called out to the crowd, telling them that she was going to finish the match right then and there. Half the crowd booed her, the other cheered. It was actually her home town crowd of London, England. It's also my home town, but I was just the 'local talent', or 'jobber'. There was gonna be no big Cinderella start to my WWE career; hell this was just a one-off match for me. Swiftly, she pulled my body down, striking my neck and upper spine with her knee.

I was released and I fell limply to the ground, face-down, selling her finisher like the pro I am and acting as if I was knocked out from the blow. In actuality, all I felt from the finishing move was a small numb pain, among various other pains from the two minute match-up. She rolled me over, hooked my leg and the referee counted to three.

I could hear, somewhere in the distance Tony Chimmel announcing, "here is your winner, Katie Lea!" The crowd cheered crazily, because either way, a home town hero had won the match tonight. The mat bounced beneath me as I felt Paul Burchill getting into the ring to celebrate with his sister, and I started to move, acting as if I was in far more pain than I actually was.

I rolled over, towards the two referees who were standing on the outside, with faux concern on their faces as they urged me to get out of the ring. All the fans immediately started booing, and as I let the referees pull me out of the ring I got a glance of why. The usual faces in the feud, DJ Gabriel and Alicia Fox, were in the ring having a stand-off with the Burchill 'siblings'. Tonight the roles were reversed; although I did notice DJ got a bit of a pop from the crowd when he landed a punch on Paul's face, after all DJ is British too.

My two referees led me down the side of the ramp as various fans tried to reach out to touch me. I made no move to return their affections, but I smiled and waved weakly as I hobbled into the backstage area. When we were out of the sight of fans, the referees instantly let go of me and scarpered off together. If I had seriously been injured, a lot of fat good they would have been! They didn't even ask me if I was okay or not. Bastards.

I straightened myself up and walked proudly towards the production area, but I was stopped midway by the woman I had just been in the ring with. She had a smile on her face, but looked a little flustered from her exchange with the dancing duo.

"Good work out there, Hope," she said with a pat on my back. I looked into her eyes, expecting to see cynicism or sarcasm. We are both British, after all. All I saw was sincerity; so I smiled widely back at her.

"Thanks, you too," I said, winking at her. America must have changed her, I hear people are much nicer over there and much more sincere than us Brits. I think I'd hate that, actually. I can't stand people who are too nice, it makes me think they're really an evil person whose trained themselves very well to come across as 'nice'.

Without another word, Katie left to go get showered and changed. I didn't have that luxury yet, I had to get paid for my work. On I continued, towards production where I knew Stephanie McMahon would be, watching the goings on of the show like an eagle for any and all mistakes made.

I soon spotted her, shouting furiously at one of the production crew. He was huge, at least six feet tall, but he still cowered before the might of a McMahon. I tried not to laugh, really I did, but a giggle managed to escape my lips and Stephanie's ears somehow picked it up. Her furious glare soon turned to me and I gulped.

"You!" she snarled, pointing her finger at me. I looked around, to see if she could possibly be pointing at someone else, but no one was in my vicinity and the only people around were watching me in horror. "Come here," God she sounded angry. I tentatively took a few steps closer to her, so I was close enough to have a conversation but not close enough for her to swipe at me. She reached to the clipboard she had held in one hand and unclipped something, then shoved it towards me.

I looked down to see it was paper. Money paper. A lot of money from what I could tell. I gently took it and muttered a 'thank you' to her. There was £400 here, which really wasn't bad at all for one night's work!

"Now go see Vince McMahon," she ordered, obviously still furious but thankfully not at me. "He wants to see you in his office. Do you know where it is?" I nodded 'yes', and with another quick 'thank you, Ms. McMahon', I hurried off to go see Mr. McMahon.

And that, is how I became a WWE (developmental) Diva.

.&.&.&.

So, I guess I should tell you about myself, because after all you are reading _my _story, and obviously I'm an integral part of it. My name is Hope French, I'm twenty years old and a professional wrestler. I usually wrestle under my real name, but I have been known to make a few changes to it. I've been in the business for three years, and I've been training since I was fifteen. I was born in London, England and raised not far away in Essex.

Have I bored you yet? If so, tough titties, there's more to come. I have long brown hair, which has red undertones dyed in and I'm told I look a bit like Lucy Pinder, but younger. And I'm not as boring personality-wise as she is and I think my chest is bigger than hers (and natural, I'll be a bit of an oddity in the WWE, won't I?)

I like long walks on the beach and to be wined and dined. Wait, this isn't a personals ad is it?

Anyway, that's me, Hope French the newest WWE (developmental) Diva. And now two months after signing my contract I'm in Florida, where the sun is shining and it's boiling hot even though it's still in the middle of winter. At least, I thought it was winter then but in actuality it was just coming up to summer time, I'd thought since it was across the world, it would have to be a completely different season. I was wrong and I must be bloody retarded or something, because I thought with it being winter, I'd need my big wool scarf, big coat and hat as soon as I got off the plane. How wrong I was.

I was sweating like a pig, which is never a good thing, all because I hadn't been bothered to research my new home to see what the weather was like. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I picked up my luggage, slightly shocked. In England it would have surely been lost. We're rather incompetent that way, I think. I know for sure I'm always getting things wrong and losing things, and I know for sure most of the British people I know are the same in varying degrees.

Quickly I took my extra layers off, and managed to somehow stuff them in my packed suitcase. I only had one suitcase for now, the rest of my stuff was being flown over to me later in the week. This suitcase had the very essentials though. Toothbrush, clothes, one of my wrestling attires, teddy bear from childhood (I don't sleep or play with it still, but I need to know it's always near; it makes me feel safe) and some money.

I left the airport and was soon outside, with the warm Florida sun beating down on my face. God it's hot here. I searched the cars lined up outside the airport because I'd been told that there would be someone waiting to meet me there and drive me to my new home, which I was apparently sharing with another of the wrestlers for a small fee.

Then I saw him for the first time, sitting on the hood of a silver car (I'm not good with cars, I couldn't tell you what make it was if my life depended on it) with no shirt on as his perfect six pack glistened with a little sweat. He was obviously sun bathing and I licked my lips as involuntary filthy thoughts that my mother would be ashamed of ran through my mind. His eyes were closed, I could tell as I approached him, but a sign lying next to him told me he was my welcoming party, as it said "Hope French (WWE DIVE)". I think it was supposed to say Diva, but maybe it was a prediction of how my career was to go. I bloody hope not.

I finally reached him and just watched him for a few seconds. I had thought he was a hunk when I'd seen him on my TV screen, but he was so much hotter in the flesh. So much. Sex on legs.

"Wow," I said loudly, startling him and causing him to jump as his eyes snapped open and he stared at me in bewilderment. "I must be in someone's good books already if they're sending me Evan Bourne as my welcome wagon."

His shock quickly turned into a goofy grin as he looked me over, nodding to himself and thinking God-knows-what. "And I must be in someone's good books, too if they're letting me share an apartment with a total babe like you."

I faltered for a second, a little shocked to hear I'd be sharing my new home with a _man. _A man I'm not sleeping with, or dating. I'd never done that before, I'd only shared with my best friend Christine and my ex before. I briefly wondered if he wanted to share an apartment with me for sexy times. I know I wanted sexy times with him.

"But I'm sure my girlfriend won't be very happy about it," he said as he slid off the hood of the car and took my suitcase. Damn, of course he'd have a girlfriend. He took my case to the boot and hefted it in, then slammed it shut. "Call me Matt, by the way," he chuckled as he held his hand out to me.

I took his hand and shook it. He felt good, a little sweaty, but good. "I'm Hope," I replied with a smile to match his. He simply nodded and slid over the hood of his car, grabbing the sign with my name on as he went, and unlocked his car.

"Get in, I'll take you home with me," he winked at me and I couldn't help but blush like a silly school girl with a crush. Well, I kind of do have a crush on him, he is pretty hot after all. But I'm not a silly school girl.

Anyway, I got in just as he turned the engine on and the sounds of a local radio station blasted out at me from the speakers. He sheepishly turned the volume down and muttered a 'sorry' to me. I didn't mind, I like my music loud enough to burst my ear drums. It's relaxing. And if I'm honest, I was getting rather nervous now. I was in a new country, about to start work for the company I'd dreamed about being a part of since I was a little girl and I was going to be sharing a flat, sorry, 'apartment' with a guy I'd fancied since I'd first seen him on TV.

"So, roomie," he said with his goofy grin back. "Let's get to know each other."

And we did. I won't bore you with details, it was mostly stupid stuff like 'What's your favourite food/colour/TV show/sex position'. Okay, maybe not the last one, but I was definitely thinking of a few moves me and this athletic God could do together. I wish he'd put a shirt on, I didn't like thinking about another woman's man.

I wish I'd known then just who's man it was, because maybe that would have saved me a lot of trouble the next day.

.&.&.&.

_Disclaimer: WWE owns all copyrights, etc. within this story. I'm just using them for fun, not for profit._


	2. The War Begins

The next morning I was startled out of the land of slumber, where I had been dreaming nice thoughts about the cold British winter and how I'd hopefully _never _have to be that cold again, by my mobile phone bleeping loudly in my ear. Until my possessions were flown over, I'd decided the old phone would make do as an alarm clock. I reached to the bedside table and groggily pushed the button that would allow me five more minutes sleep and happily drifted off into the land of nod again... only to hear the incessant 'BEEP, BEEP, BEEP,' wake me up again just as I'd fallen asleep.

Begrudgingly, I pulled the covers off and sat up before turning the annoying sounds off, so I wouldn't be tempted to convince myself to sleep any longer. Today was important, I was going to report to FCW for the first time ever and officially start my life as a developmental Diva.

I threw my arms out and had my obligatory morning stretch as I looked around the room. It wasn't my room; which was just down the hall, it was Matt's. He had a few posters hanging up on the wall, showing a band and a couple of wrestlers he had obviously aspired to be when he was much younger. His clothes, as well as some of mine, were scattered unceremoniously all over the wooden floor and my suitcase was standing at the end of the king size bed with half its contents strewn out. There was a bra – one of mine – somehow on the lights, I noticed.

My gaze wandered over to the other side of the bed, and I was disappointed to see Matt wasn't there. Not that he had been in the first place, but I'd had a dream that he'd come in during the night and I'd had my wicked way with him and was half-hoping it had been real. It wasn't, I even smelled that half of the bed to check no one but me had been in there. No sexy man scent in the bed. Damn.

Matt, as it turns out, was actually a darling, goofy and immature fella. He'd offered me his bed instantly upon hearing my belongings were still to be shipped over from England, and being the greedy cow I am, I instantly accepted his invitation. He'd spent the night on the sofa and I'd heard him laughing his arse off into the early hours at Family Guy while I was attempting to get some beauty sleep. Eventually the TV had turned off in the other room and I'd been able to get to sleep at 2AM, but now woke at 8AM. Not enough sleep at all, and already I felt as if I needed to go to bed for another six hours.

Against my own will, I got up off the bed as I heard the doorbell ringing and almost skipped towards the bedroom door. I threw it open and happily trotted down the hall towards the door, but I saw that in Matt had got there before I could. He was closer, I guess. He didn't have a shirt on and my eyes slowly lowered down his impressive body...

Oh my actual God.

He was in some very, very tight black boxers, and as he turned towards me I could definitely see a very, very big bulge in them. I could feel my face getting hot as I blushed, and I quickly looked down at the floor, only to notice to my horror that I wasn't much more clothed than he was. My night clothes have consisted of a bra and panties ever since I was fourteen, and the ones I had chosen to wear last night weren't very 'respectable' by any means.

I looked back up at him and saw he was staring at me with wide eyes while trying to block me from the view of a woman with his arm and body. She was giggling, thinking it was one of his goofy games. It must have been his girlfriend, he'd told me she would be popping round early in the morning! I took the hint that this could have become very unnecessarily awkward and darted back towards Matt's bedroom, which in hindsight was probably the worst thing to have done.

You see, she managed to duck under Matt's arm, laughing at his games, just as I'd turned my back on him. I knew she'd spotted me, because the laughter stopped almost immediately.

"What the fuck, Matt?" I heard her say from behind me. I turned around tentatively to see a small Asian-looking woman glaring furiously between Matt and myself. Being the helpful girl I am, I said absolutely nothing and let Matt take it as I stood there stupidly, trying to cover my chest up a little better with my arms.

"Angela, it's really not what you think!" He said, his eyes even wider, terror obviously coursing through his veins as he mentally pleaded with his girlfriend to believe him. She should, it was true, it's not what she probably thought at all. I secretly wished it was true, but it wasn't. You can't blame a girl for having hormones.

"That's what they all say, you.. you pig!" she screamed deafeningly at him. I wasn't expecting what came next; she reared her hand back and quickly slapped him, just as loudly! From the look of shock that registered on his face as he staggered back, I don't think Matt was expecting it either. "I hope your night with that _slut_," she pointed at me and my mouth fell open, also in shock, "was worth it Matthew Korklan! We're over!"

She stormed out of our apartment, leaving behind an awkward crackle in the air. Matt shut the door with one hand on his slapped cheek and we both just stood in the hallway for a few moments, guilty trying not to look at one another as if we'd actually _done _something worthy of said guilt.

"Crap," he finally said. "I can't believe that just happened."

"I know!" I said angrily. "How very dare she call me a slut!"

Hey, just because I keep thinking smutty thoughts about her boyfriend – well, ex now – doesn't mean I _am_ a slut. I was about to go on a rant about her words towards me, when I noticed the hurt puppy look on Matt's face and my heart instantly melted and went out to him. God, I'm insensitive sometimes, I really must learn to change that someday. Tentatively, I approached him and rested my hand on his bare back (ooh, shivers!) and rubbed his skin soothingly.

"I'm sorry," I muttered, not knowing what else to say. He nodded and smiled weakly but briefly, then removed himself from my touch and walked away towards the kitchen. I followed him and made myself some cereal – the pinnacle of my cooking abilities – and sat down opposite him and watching him as he absent-mindedly moved his cereal around in his bowl.

After a few silent minutes, penetrated only by the crunching sounds I made when chewing my own cereal, I spoke up again. "You want to call her, tell her the truth?" He shook his head sadly. "You gonna call her later then? Give her time to cool off?" He nodded, still sadly. "You want me to move out?" I asked tentatively. Please don't. He shook his head furiously and put a spoon full of cereal into his mouth and began chewing. We stayed silent for a few seconds. "Do you want your room back?" He shook his head again. "Wanna smile?"

He looked up at me and gave me the briefest of smiles. "Come on," I said playfully. "Smile for momma Hope, she loves it when you smile." Again it was brief but his face broke into the goofy grin I had already grown accustomed to, suddenly, I felt much better. He threw his head back and put his hands either side of his bowl on the table and groaned in frustration.

I leant forward and took his hands in mine for comfort. "It's gonna be okay honey, just wait and see. Tonight you'll both be on the couch laughing your heads off at the whole situation." He looked at me and smiled weakly, I don't think he believed what I was saying, but I carried on. "And you're going to tell her you'd never cheat on her, and she's going to fall in love with you all over again."

He nodded absently as he stared at me, his smile growing in strength as his eyes drifted downwards towards my cleavage and I only just remembered we were both extremely close to naked. I stood up quickly and sheepishly made to leave the room; I had to shower and get ready to report to FCW anyway.

His hands landed on my waist and stopped me as I reached the door, and he turned me around to face him. I gulped as I felt his hand slowly and gently running up the side of my body towards my breasts. My skin was tingling with desire for his touch, it felt far better than it should have. I looked down to his face, to see a nervous lust in his eyes. Pleasure ran through my body as his hand brushed against my semi-erect nipple through my bra and just when things were getting interesting he... picked up a Cheerio that was stuck to my breast and popped it in his mouth. Damn my sloppy eating habits, making me look like an idiot for him. But it was worth it just to see his grin permanently on his face as he went back to eating his own cereal. Damn him, too. And damn his sexy grin.

.&.&.&.

I felt pretty bad as I walked towards the FCW building, bag full of clothes and wrestling attire. No, actually I felt really bad. Already Matt had made me feel so welcomed in America and his home, showing me around my new town, Tampa, the previous day (without a shirt for the whole day, it was agony in a completely good way) and then taking me back to his home. Not only did he give me his room and bed but he also stayed up until almost midnight chatting away with me until I had decided it was a fair time to hit the hay. I already thought of him as a friend.

And now, in less than a day of being in the country, I'd already potentially ruined his relationship. Luckily, I'd discovered there was a small glimmer of hope that I could also potentially save his relationship. His girlfriend was apparently a fellow developmental diva called Angela Fong, or Miss Angela. The thing I was dreading, however, was the fact that I knew I was taking part in a taping today and I was in a tag match _against_ Angela. If I didn't sort this out before our match, the results could be pretty lethal.

I arrived at the FCW 'arena' (actually just a building with a ring and some chairs) to find a ring being set up in front of the building, which made my eyebrows shoot up in shock. I'd never heard of people actually wrestling outside, except for in people's back gardens and when WWE does open-ceiling events like WrestleMania 24. Never had I seen a ring actually being set up outside with chairs being set up around it as a make-shift 'arena'. I think I liked the idea of wrestling out in the beautiful Floridian spring-time sun.

I entered my new permanent 'arena' and was greeted almost instantly by Steve Keirn, who happily showed me around, introduced me to various staff members I would be working with (trainers, production crew and various wrestlers). It seemed like a fairly nice place to be working. I had a quick meeting with the person who was in charge of creative in the developmental promotion and had a read-over of the script.

Then he showed me to the women's locker room, told me to wait around after my match, wished me good luck and left me to my own devices. I entered the changing room, not even bothering to look at the other women in there. There was only a few of us there, I counted two other women. I could hear them muttering to one another furiously, which to be honest I was rather used to. Women can be incredibly catty when there's a new girl around, especially in the wrestling business. They always think the new girl is there to replace them, because they're younger, more talented or better looking. Sometimes its stupid, and others its fully justified.

I was there to replace no one, however, in my stupidity I didn't realize that maybe they were being discreetly hostile for a completely different reason.

It wasn't long before I was shoved sideways by one of the girls obviously bumping into me. I looked up to see Angela sneering at me. Oh crap. The other girl, who had been the one to shove me, I recognised as Tiffany from ECW. She, too, was sneering at me in almost as much disgust as Angela was.

Quickly, I stood my ground and proudly thrust my chest out. "See," Angela said to her cohort, "I told you she's a slut."

With that, they both left me with my mouth agape. Oh no she di'n't just call me a slut _again_! Bitch is gonna _pay _in that ring tonight. I don't care if I get fired, bitch is gonna get her ass kicked. The war is _on_!

Furious, I looked around the room and noticed that she'd left her clothing. With an evil smirk, I made my way over to her belongings and pulled her clothes out onto the bench. She hadn't changed into her ring gear yet, it was all still here. I sniggered as I lifted her bra-top and quickly dug my long nails in, ripping it up and dismantling it with ease. I did the same with the pants and used the locker room sink to make a large wet patch on the clothing at the groin, so just in case she decided she couldn't wear any other outfit, she'd look like she'd made a big mistake in her panties.

I was surprised to hear an evil cackle explode out of my mouth as I worked on destroying her boots. Then I quickly put everything back where I'd found it and acted completely innocent as I started to change out of my street clothes and into my ring attire. I really hoped she couldn't borrow someone else's outfit. Bitch needed to suffer for calling me a slut. I knew Matt would hate me if he found out what I did, because it just made things look much more suspicious than it already did, but I honestly didn't care. We could make up and laugh about it when he sees Angela as the bitch she is and we laugh about it all. I hoped.

Girls came and went in the locker room, and soon I was in the locker room with my two partners for the night. They were both on the main roster, one was called Milena but had the ring name 'Rosa Mendes'. The other was a woman I'd faced in the past, and a fellow countrywoman, Katie Burchill!

"Hello, love," she said to me with a big smile as she entered the locker room. "Ready for our match?" she asked as she threw her bag down onto the bench next to me.

"Yeah," I replied with a wicked smile at the thoughts of my plans for the match. Bitch was gonna pay.

Unlike the rest of the FCW divas, I'd sorted out my clothing, make-up and hair almost immediately after coming into the locker room (I had some vandalism to do first and foremost). Therefore, I escaped the rush Milena seemed to be going through. She looked like a hot tranny mess, with her make up all smudged to make her look like a clown, her hair half wild and untamed and half straightened and her pants on the completely wrong way.

Katie smiled back at me, she probably thought my own smile was out of nervous curtsey or something. She walked over to a mirror to check her make up and hair, which she seemed to have come with ready-made to avoid the rush Milena and the other divas would all be experiencing very soon. The show was to start in just under thirty minutes, and so far I was the only diva who was fully ready. We were the second match on the card, so we only had forty-five minutes, tops, until we had to be ring-ready.

"You look beautiful," I remarked. She really did, too, slightly gothic but not enough to pass off as one or take away from her natural beauty.

"Thank you," she said with a smirk, I think she'd been thinking the same thing, too. She quickly set about squeezing into her leather ring gear as I deposited my belongings in one of the lockers (I didn't want Angela taking any opportunity to get some revenge on me) and I sat down on the bench again as I watched Milena running around the room like a psycho chicken, looking for her mascara.

Angela returned five minutes after Katie had arrived, with Tiffany in tow. I smirked at her, and she just turned her gaze away in disgust. Before she could get to her bags, I darted out of the room. I was halfway down the hall when I heard a furious screeching coming from the diva's locker room, and I cackled evilly once more over my revenge. It felt good. I just hoped Matt didn't find out and hate me. Crap, I should have thought it through before being so petty. Oh well, I laughed, can't change what's happened.

.&.&.&.

Forty minutes later, I was in the middle of the ring with the Floridian sun beating down on my skin and I loved it. Katie's usual ring music was playing over the speakers, and with Rosa we had entered the ring as a solid unit and team. There's no time for individuality in quick six diva tag matches. Rosa and myself stood either side of Katie, conversing with her over 'strategies'. In reality, the script had most of the match planned out anyway as it was so short. I was to be in the ring thirty seconds, and only hit one simple move, as they had yet to evaluate my skills and abilities in the ring and the other girls weren't used to taking moves from me yet. Whatever. I just know I got roughly 10 seconds with Angela in the ring, and I got to hit my single move on her, so I was happy.

The other team's music started up and the announcer stood before us in the ring. "Introducing their opponents, Miss Angela," the fans popped as she came running out from the building and slapped hands with them on her way down. We, the heels in the ring, simply mocked her as she came out. "Tiffany," a smaller pop was heard as she came skipping down to the ring, "and Eve Torres!"

The former diva search winner came running down to join her partners in the ring, and everyone but Rosa and Tiffany cleared the ring and stood on the outside of the ring at the turnbuckles. I only paid loose attention to the match before me as Tiffany tagged out to Eve. I was far too busy shooting daggers at Angela (who I was disappointed to notice had borrowed some one else's attire for the event), and she was far too busy glaring back at me. Too busy, in fact, to notice that she had been tagged in by Eve.

The fans laughed at her mistake as she stumbled into the ring, and I couldn't help but laugh either. Pretty soon Rosa finally had the upper hand in the match and tagged quickly out to me. I came running in and propelled my body at Angela, connecting with a dropkick to her jaw. A sickening crack resonated around the open space and many of the fans in attendance 'oohed' at the sound. She got up, holding onto her jaw for what I hope was legitimate reasons. I'd planned it to be.

I kicked her in the gut, hard as I could and she coiled over in front of me. I grabbed her head and fell back, performing a simple snap DDT. Laughter escaped my lips as I turned my back on her and taunted to the fans, just as I'd been told to in the script. What happened next was _not _in the script. Angela was supposed to tag out, then I was supposed to take a few moves and then tag out to Katie so we could get the win.

Instead of hearing the slap of someone tagging in, I heard the slap of Angela's leg striking my own. I fell backwards and had no chance to react as Angela got on top of me and began punching away at me. There was nothing I could do, except cover my face with one hand and attempt to shove her off with the other.

I heard a bell ringing repeatedly, but it sounded so distant. The referee was shouting furiously at us, and I heard the same announcer from earlier declare, "Uh.. here are your winners via disqualification, Hope French, Rosa Mendes and Katie Lea Burchill?"

Eventually, people came to my aid and pulled the rabid Asian off of me and attempted to restrain her. I got up, with some help from Katie who whispered in my ear, "What a bloody psycho! Are you all right, love?" I nodded 'yes' to her, and was going to turn away, when my ears picked up Angela's screeching.

"You fucking slut! You're gonna pay, bitch!"

Then, I lost it too. I don't remember what happened next very well, but I know that it ended up with _me _being restrained and pulled back into the building while screaming out "I did nothin'!" while Angela bled from the nose in the ring. Looks like the war was already over.

Back in the FCW building, I was put straight back to work as to work off my rage, test my abilities and stamina. I spent the next few hours with the trainers, working out and performing all my best moves and running around aimlessly for ages.

I was told as I was leaving that Angela was docked a weeks pay for starting the fight, and that we'd both received an official warning. Great, my first day and already I'm in the doghouse!

I returned home gloomily, fully expecting my day to get even worse. Matt had probably heard about our scuffle by now and had repacked all my things and I was going to be kicked out. I just knew it.

So, I opened the front door of our apartment as quietly as possible and closed it just as quietly. It was dark, except for a dim light coming from the living room TV. I crept along the hall, being careful not to knock anything over in the dark. Everything was quiet and peaceful, so you can imagine how terrified I was when a dark form jumped out at me from the living room!

I was scooped up into strong arms and pressed against a rock hard chest as I screamed in horror. The chest rocked as Matt's laughter filled the ill, and instantly all fear evaporated from you.

"You're a dick, Matt!" I grumbled against his chest. He just laughed more and swung us around, so I was facing the living room door as he hugged me.

"Thank you!" he whispered in my ear. Well, that shocked me. It wasn't often one was _thanked _for getting into legitimate fights with people's girlfriends.

"Um, you're welcome?" I said confusedly. Over his shoulder, I saw someone in the living room turn to face us and was shocked to see it was Angela. She had something taped over her nose, probably to protect it. I found out much later that I'd broken it that day, and our fight was shown in all its entirety on the next broadcast of FCW TV.

"Angela told me you talked it over with her," he whispered in my ear. "She knows it was all a mistake, she really likes you, you know." I highly doubted that.

"Oh, yes," I said, still as confused as I watched her. She was smiling at me, but it didn't look like the nice variety by any means. "You're very welcome hon." I said, not taking my eyes off of her as Matt continued to embrace me. His lips brushed against my cheek and finally my eyes went to him. "Do you want your bed back to.. er.. 'make up' with Angela? Because I could really do with crashing out right now." He shook his head and we wished one another a 'good night'. I ignored Angela's attempts to be 'friendly' towards me and made my way to Matt's room to think things over. Turns out, our little war was only just about to start.

.&.&.&.

_A.N.: _Thank you so much to my lovely reviewers ChainGangShorty54 (who has a Bourne story of her own that I love), Ainat, Ali Vegas and Angelwilliamsfan. Your kind words really drove me to churn out this chapter, so I hope you, and any of the other readers out there, like it!


	3. The Annoying Angela

Three days later, April was fast approaching and bringing with it bolstering heat and endless sunshine in the days and, to be honest, I was torn on whether to love it or hate it. Being a Brit, this weather was completely foreign (literally) to me, and I was struggling with it. One moment I would be loving the sun and the next I'd need to run indoors in order to cool down and cope.

In the first few days, I'd enjoyed going up to the apartment block roof with Matt in the days to sunbathe and chat about almost everything. Angela had made her presence known during these times that I had planned to have alone with Matt. She was only staying around to make me jealous, I think. Anyway, I'd be chatting away with Matt and occasionally Angela, only to look up to see her writhing all over his half naked body with her face attached to his. As soon as I'd catch her eye, she'd stood and look sheepish, but I knew her game.

She _wanted _me jealous. She wanted me to know 'even if you do fancy him to death, he's _all mine'. _Good for her, I suppose. I wasn't about to go steal someone else's man. Besides, even if I did steal him from her, how terribly anxious and paranoid would I become, considering he's always on the road and away? Very, is the answer if you're not very smart.

Practically any other time I had alone was either spent sleeping, eating or hanging out with Katie, who was fast becoming my sole girl friend in America. I'd discovered after my first taping experience that she lived just around the corner from Matt and myself, and we got on so well. We'd started a friendship just because we were both English, but it soon transpired that we had a lot in common, which included two equally raging crushes on Matt.

It was on the third day after getting into my fight with Angela that Matt flew off to go on tour for four days with ECW and Smackdown. I'll admit, I did miss him to begin with. His company, when I wasn't training down at FCW in the afternoons, was very welcome and extremely nice to have. Although we'd flirt whenever Angela wasn't around, almost shamelessly, he was also very interested in getting to know _me,_ as a person and, more importantly, a friend. How many guys actually do that? Gay guys do, I know, but Matt certainly wasn't gay. I'd seen the boners from when I walked around in either my underwear or nothing at all (after a shower, of course) as proof.

However, there was something good to come from Matt being away, or so I thought. I'd thought, of course, that there would be no more Angela for me as soon as he left.

I was, of course, wrong.

In fact, as soon as I'd received a text from Matt saying 'About to board plane, see U soon x', there was a knock on the door. I ignored it at first, much preferring to sit on the couch, watching some random soap opera while devouring a packet of cookies all to myself. Cookies are almost a fetish for me. The knocking persisted, I guess the TV gave me away, so I begrudgingly got up from my comfortable spot on the couch and went to the front door. I opened it, ever so slightly, and peered out.

Angela stared back at me, a wide smile lighting up her face. I noticed it didn't reach her eyes.

"Oh, hello," I said, not even daring to open the door another crack. "Matt's not here, he's gone on tour. He'll be gone today until Thursday. Didn't he tell you?" Hee hee hee, I'd have loved it if he'd informed me and not her that he'd gone across the country. Suck on that, bitch.

"Don't be silly, Hopey," Angela replied with a giggle. That's her nickname for me, by the way. The full version is 'Hopey Wopey', but she stopped calling me the full title when I informed her I'd slit her neck if she ever called me it again. I was joking, of course, but American's don't _get _my humour I suppose. "I'm here to see you!" Oh, God, what had I done to deserve this?

"Oh," was all I could say. I just watched dumbly as she pushed her way into my home and shimmied into the living room. I closed the door behind her, and slowly ventured into the living room to join her.

That _bitch _had already helped herself to my cookies! I lunged for the packet to salvage my precious babies, only to notice to my dismay that there were _none _left.

"Angela, how could you?" I raged. She just looked up at me, with bloody crumbs on her bottom lip, with an inquiring look on that stupid face of hers. "You ate my last cookie!" Know what she did next? The impetuous little cow _laughed_.

If she wasn't Matt's precious girlfriend, I would seriously have kicked her ass again right then and there. I sat down, on the armchair that was furthest away from her, and began watching the TV again. God damn I was angry, though. Seething, really. The girl had no manners.

Then, to top it off, she turned off the TV and came and sat down on the arm of the chair I was on. She said nothing for a few minutes, allowing me enough time to covertly text Katie with the message: 'I can't stand Angela. Such a bitch, she stole last cookie xoxo'.

"Hopey," Angela finally said. I looked up to her, feigning innocence. "Tell me about yourself."

"Erm," I murmured, slightly taken aback. "W-what do you want to know?"

"Everything."

"How specific," I muttered, she giggled. I wondered if I should appease her and actually tell her about myself. After all, it might help us actually get along (and not this faux bitchy 'getting along' that Angela had us doing). On the other hand, it could backfire and she could use information against me. Eh, I have nothing to lose. My only friends in America so far are Katie and Matt. Besides, there's nothing too shocking about me. It's more my family you have to watch out for, and luckily none of them are in America, so it's all good.

"I was born on 6th January, 1989," I started. She nodded and urged me on with her eyes, so I complied. "My mother was the village bike – everyone had had a go. Even the milk man, who I found out two years ago was actually my real father." She laughed, obviously thinking I was joking. I wasn't. Cow. "My father, I mean to say, the man I grew up believing was my father, was also a slut. Actually, so was my real father. I have good genes, obviously."

"I don't really care about that stuff," she admitted when I'd finished babbling. At least she was honest. "Tell me all the juicy stuff, like how and when you lost your virginity, what your favourite hobbies are, what your last boyfriend was like."

She grinned at me, but I didn't return the favour. "Oh, you want to know those things do you? I'm not sure I want to play then." My phone made a tingling noise and I flipped it up to look at the text message I had just received from Katie. 'Poor love! Vodka night when I get back in fl? Xoxo'

A broad smile instantly lit up my face. Let me tell you what 'vodka night' is. It's a small gathering, with friends or family, where you drink yourself stupid with vodka and various different accompanying ingredients, usually get naked in one form or another and cause chaos and mayhem around whatever town you happen to be in. All in all, vodka nights are hellish fun, but definitely the sort of night you'd regret in the morning... only to do it all over again the next week. I'd told Katie about the vodka nights I usually had in England with my cousin and a few mutual friends, and she'd instantly been up for starting a vodka night tradition of our own. Another thing we had in common, love for the vodka.

"Ooh vodka night? What's that?" Angela asked as she peered over my shoulder down at my phone screen. I cursed inwardly for allowing her to see such a message. "Sounds totally fun, whatever it is. Can I come?"

I said nothing as I purposely slowly replied to Katie, thinking of excuses the entire time. 'Omg yes! Love you xoxo'. Then it hit me, I didn't know why, but for some reason I suddenly wanted Angela drunk. Usually when people are drunk, they're much more open and far more likely to let things slip they would never dream of saying when sober. If she wanted to get to _know _me, for whatever reasons she had, then I'd get to _know _her first.

"Yeah, sure," I said with the tiniest of evil glints in my eye.

"Awesome! Hey, I'm going to the gym, you wanna come?" she asked, with hope evident in her voice. I scrutinized her face, wondering if it could be some elaborate ruse to embarrass or hurt me. I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt, and caved in. Couldn't be too bad, could it?

.&.&.&.

I ended up spending the entire day with Angela, and let me tell you right now, I have never met anyone so annoyingly chirpy in my entire life. Don't get me wrong, I like a bit of happiness, I can't stand miserable people. But this girl, she was something in an entirely different league to 'happy'.

It _seemed _that she'd put her misconception behind us and was genuinely trying to become my friend and be liked by me. She was playing a damn good game, I had caught myself almost believing that we could be friends at some point. But, there was something in her eyes as she told me that I was incredibly 'awesome' that simply shattered those beliefs. Malice is the word for it, I believe.

Oh, and not only did I spend that first day with her, but I spent the next two with her, too. She came by the house at 9AM on the dot both mornings and would instantly make herself at home on the couch. Not wanting to be around her and give into any of her devious plans, whatever they may be, I'd made myself into the ungraceful host and spent my time cleaning noisily, with my ipod firmly plugged into my ears and playing almost full blast. There was no way I was being tricked into having conversation with her in the mornings. No-sir-ee-bob.

However, in the afternoon of the first day, we both had training sessions together, with the other divas at the FCW arena. I got along with the other girls fine. There was only five of us, actually.

Beverly Mullins, who went by the ring name "Wesley Holiday" seemed nice enough, if not a little boring and self-adoring. Jenny Quinn went by the ring name "Jenny Cash" and was pretty much in the same boat as Beverly. Angela, we all know by now, and she acted as if we were best friends during the entire session (much to management's utter delight, they were hoping to plan a storyline branching from our catfight the previous week).

Then, there was Cat. Catalina White, known to the fans as "Saylor James" (I know, it's a stupid name, isn't it?)

I instantly fell in non-lesbian love with the girl... with the tiniest bit of lesbian love added in. She laughed at _everything_ and it was a dirty laugh, filthy even. Not only did she have a dirty laugh, but a mind to match. For instance, when one of the trainers (who was a male) was attempting to teach her how to do a power bomb and was lowering her face down towards his crotch, she instantly came out with a crack along the lines of: "Hold on big boy, I'm not _that_ easy!"

Needless to say, I felt as if I'd had to get her number instantly.

The next day, Angela had come round in the morning again and we'd set off to the TV taping together in the afternoon. She'd come with me to get a copy of the script, come into the shower with me, got changed right next to me, made me do her hair and then returned the favour and we even did our make up together. It was driving me crazy.

I think she was keeping me close, so I couldn't sneak off and phone Matt. She was paranoid I was going to 'stir the shit', as they say. To be fair to me, her paranoia was completely unwarranted. If I wanted to turn him against her, I could have done the night before when Matt had called me just before he'd gone to bed for a quick chat. Instead, I'd told him Angela and myself were getting along famously, just to make him happy. I decided not to tell him she was driving me mad and had practically become my stalker. No, I left that out.

The only time we parted at the taping was when I went off to join my tag team partner for the night, Beverly to talk things that were in the script over.

You know, a lot of people think that matches are completely scripted. They're not. We have to do a lot of improvising, the script only tells us simple things such as how long we're to roughly be in the ring, whether we're to be in control or taking the punishment and what specific moves they'd like to see done in this time frame. The rest is up to us, and occasionally the referee will whisper something to do that he just heard in his ear piece from the production staff.

Angela made to follow me to Beverly, but stopped in her tracks and quickly left to go out to the ring. She was on ring announcer duty for the match. Jenny and Cat soon left to make their entrance and then it was mine and Bev's turn. We got into the ring and I shoved Angela out of my way as I climbed up onto one of the turnbuckles, just as I was supposed to. I wasn't going to break out of the script again, that would have had terrible repercussions. She got out of the ring, and Beverly and Jenny started the match with a pose off, followed by a sneaky roll-up by my partner for a two count.

Some rather generic punches and clotheslines followed, with an Irish whip sending Jenny into our corner after a tedious minute of the generic offence. I choked Jenny with the ropes from the turnbuckle as Beverly distracted the referee, then I quickly stopped as his attention turned towards my corner. Beverly bounded over and tagged me in. I stepped into the ring to boos from the crowd, and began stomping at Jenny in our corner.

I threw my arms up into the air, pointing down to myself as I smugly paraded around the ring, the fans reacting negatively to my showings. How very dare they. Jenny escaped the ring in this time and tagged in Cat. She came running at me, connecting with a drop kick to my chest. I fell back and quickly slid out of the ring, staring up at Cat in faux horror.

She came over to the ropes, taunting me to get back into the ring, but I declined and walked around the ring as the referee started counting me out. I was almost to Angela. Beverly ran into the ring, distracting the referee by jumping Cat from behind and pounding away at her on the mat.

I finally reached Angela, and took hold of the ring bell that was next to her. She stopped me and I began shouting at her as I snatched it away and began threatening her with it. Angela responded by angrily slapping me, much harder than she should have. I responded by dropping the bell and shoving her into the barricades, much harder than _I _should have and giving many of the male fans the opportunity to swarm around and touch her indecently. She threw the fans off and quickly ran at me, spearing me and punching away at me for the second week in a row.

Eventually though, this time she dragged me by the hair and threw me back into the ring. Cat was quick to break away from the fighting as I lay on the mat groaning out to sell the attack. She covered me for the pin as our two partners took the cat fight to the outside of the ring, but I kicked out at a two count. Cat dragged me up by my hair, but I punched at her gut and she released me.

I grabbed her hair as she keeled over and pulled her head down towards my knee, connecting it to her face. She was already starting to get up as I climbed the corner to the top rope, coming off quickly and connecting with a flying crossbody into a pin, getting a two. Frustrated, I dragged her by her arm to my corner and tagged in my partner, then stood on the outside. It was over in a less than thirty seconds later, as Cat got a roll-up pin on Beverly.

I came in to play the distressed partner of the loser and began shouting angrily at Beverly as Angela came into the ring and announced smugly: "Your winners, Saylor James and Jenny Cash!" I stormed up behind her, and connected with a superkick as she turned towards me. I yelled at Beverly "Lift her now!" as the fans booed us. She did so and held Angela up as I applied a full nelson, then lifted her up and into a seated full-nelson slam. We left the ring area and we were soon joined by Angela, who instantly came up to me in the locker room.

"Oh my gosh, Hopey! I'm so sorry if I was a little rough out there!" she said, rather happily.

"It's okay,"I replied. "I know you couldn't hurt me even if you tried." Her face fell with that.

.&.&.&.

Matt was due home that night, and I woke up at just past 2AM hearing the front door slamming shut (somehow) over my ipod. I left it a few minutes, then made my way towards the living room. The TV was on, I'd gathered that Matt liked it on when he was trying to get to sleep, but he was crashed out fully clothed on the sofa. One leg was over the back and his mouth was wide open as he snored very gently.

I silently walked into the living room, turning my ipod's volume down as I did just in case and smiled at how peaceful and sweet he looked. He had the beginnings of a beard coming in in the form of a 'five o'clock shadow' and I found it suited him. It looked almost sexy on him. I'm not sure how I'd have felt about a full-on beard, though.

"_Anything he does is better than anything ordinary," _came the words of the song "The Promise" by Girls Aloud in my ears as I watched my number one crush sleeping. Oh god, that makes me sound creepy, but it was purely innocent, I promise. _"Everything he wants, he gets, because everything he does is kinda necessary,"_ I pulled the blanket off the back of the couch and threw it over him.

"_I believe in love, tell me can anything last forever?" _Probably not, I thought as I leaned down to gently stroke a loose strand of wool from the blanket away from his face. _"If life can live up to love, got a hand on my heart I'm never saying never."_

I was surprised when Matt sleepily pulled me down on top of him on the couch. He smiled, bleary eyed up at me and pulled the cover over me, too. I didn't dare move as he pulled my face down to his and connected with a tender kiss on my lips, then let his head fall as he fell back asleep again.

"_You're gonna make me, make me love you, nothing at all, nothing that I do," _the girls sang in my ears, and as I felt my lips tingle from the short kiss, I thought the words might be a little late. I think I loved him, just a little bit, but I think I did.

I relaxed against his rock hard body and eventually fell asleep. I had a vodka night to rest up for.

.&.&.&.

_A.N_: Thank you to those who read, favourited and alerted my story. Means a lot to me! Special thanks go out to Roxyislikeapuma, BrieeyxShika and ChainGangShorty54 for their lovely reviews. I hope you all liked this chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the WWE trademarks in this film, nor do I own anything to do with Girls Aloud as much as I wish I could be one of them... grr.


	4. The Vodka Night

"Well, what happened when you woke up then? Come on, dish on the details, bitch!"

I tried to hide my smile with my glass as I took a sip of my vodka and coke. Katie sat on the opposite side of her kitchen table, glaring daggers at me with impatience. She grabbed her own glass and downed almost the entire thing.

"Hmm," I started, earning more glares from the diva across from me. My lips smacked as I took another long sip from my glass and the wonderful liquid fire coursed down my throat and deeply into my chest.

"Don't be so cruel to me, love," Katie pleaded, trying look sweet and innocent in a vain attempt to get me to spill the beans.

With a chuckle, I leaned forward. "I'm not being cruel, honey. There's absolutely nothing to tell if I'm honest with you."

She raised her eyebrow and leaned back in her chair, making it creak quietly and giving me the filthiest of sceptical looks in the process. "I don't fucking believe you if I'm honest, love."

I laughed. "Well you should," I said with a grin. "I woke up and Matt was gone, he left me a note saying he'd gone to the gym and he'd see me later."

The filthy sceptic looks continued, even though I was actually telling the truth. When I'd awoken, the only trace of Matt ever lying next to me had been his luscious scent and a slightly warm patch next to me. If I'm honest, I'd been pretty disappointed. I'd wanted to wake up next to him, slowly awaken him with well-placed kisses and rubs only for him to then tell me of his undying love for me and then we'd have made love the entire day and night, and then some. Unfortunately, that only happens in fairy tales and I just don't happen to be Cinder-fucking-ella. Boo hoo.

"So you mean to tell me," Katie said, leaning forward and whispering as if this was all some big elaborate conspiracy. "That you only had a sleepy kiss? No molesting him? No filthy morning sex? Nothing?"

"Nothing," I repeated with a sad smile.

"I suppose you have only known him a very short while," she said quickly, obviously noticing she needed to change the track of the conversation from dirty to serious. "He seems like the sort of bloke who has morales and standards; although, he _is _dating that useless whore Angela." I nodded in agreement, trying to hide a smirk as she giggled.

Speak of the devil, and she will appear. No sooner had Katie said those words and the doorbell rang out across her house. Neither of us made any movement, we knew who it was. Besides, it's not like Katie ever opens her own door. No that tedious duty is left to one of her army of boys, as was serving drinks and various other tasks for the night.

Tonight her 'soldier' was Max, a young man who I believe was barely 18 at the time. He was obviously of Hispanic heritage, with dark hair and skin to match. I would guess he stood at around 6 foot tall and his body was quite impressive for his age but at the same time it was really nothing too special. His uniform for that night was only some _very_ tight, _very _white boxers that left practically nothing to the imagination. He wasn't to my personal tastes, but I could understand why Katie enjoyed his 'company'.

"Answer the door, boy," she said harshly with a snap of her fingers. He bounced out of the kitchen and into the hallway and as Katie poured both of us another drink and also a third for our guest, we could easily hear Angela squealing like a virgin at the boy.

Soon Angela came rushing into the kitchen, her face bright red in embarrassment. "Ohmigosh, Katie, I'm so sorry I've just seen your boyfriend naked!"

Quick as a flash, Katie went from being slouched in her chair with her leather boots up on the table to being in a firm upright position. Her head was swivelling around a mile a minute, looking around for any sign of her boyfriend. "What the hell is Matt doing here?"

"Matt?" Angela asked in a dangerous tone with a glare to boot. I chuckled and took a sip of my vodka and coke, watching Angela carefully. She really was a paranoid little thing.

"Hardy," I said for Katie, who was too busy peeking out into the hallway, frightened that her army of boys would be outed to her long-term boyfriend Matt Hardy.

Angela's face instantly relaxed and she sat down on the chair that was next to mine and giggled to herself. It sounded awful, like two cats fighting. Honest, it did.

"Then don't worry, I didn't see your boyfriend naked."

Katie sighed loudly with relief and joined us at the table. I hated her for sitting opposite myself and not with me. Angela smelled of cheap perfume. Maybe it was my mind just making things up to hate about her, but I swear to God, everything about her was simply awful to me. She turned to me, a wide, fake smile spread across her face.

"So what's on the card for tonight, Hopey?"

"Drinking," I said, giving her a filthy look for asking the stupidest question possible. Both myself and Katie took our glasses in our hands and with a significant look to one another, we both downed the large tumbler glasses in one go.

"So drink up, love," Katie whispered as she pushed Angela's glass towards her. She looked to me and winked cheekily and I knew exactly why. Knowing Angela wouldn't want to be outdone by us, I'd seen Katie purposely fill her glass up with vodka and added practically only a few drops of coke. Angela was getting off-her-face drunk tonight, whether she liked it or not and Katie was damn well going to see to it.

My enemy took her glass and with a nervous giggle took a sip of the liquid, then gasped in shock. "That is _soo _strong!" She put her glass down and us British girls smirked evilly.

"Well, if you can't keep up Angela..." I let myself trail off and feigned disappointment. It worked a treat and soon Angela was gagging after having downed almost a whole glass of what was pretty much neat vodka. Katie surprised everyone by cackling loudly.

With a snap of her fingers, Katie summoned Max back into the kitchen. She nodded her head towards our empty glasses and he set about refilling them. When that task was done, he turned to Katie to see if she had any more instructions for him. She did.

"Get on your hands and knees, boy," she said with a wicked grin. Angela and I watched in amazement as he followed the order and allowed Katie to use him as a foot rest! "Good dog."

I couldn't help it. I burst out laughing, which earned me a scowl from Katie. Never before in my life had I seen a dominatrix at work, especially in such an asexual situation as pre-drunk vodka night. I took a long sip from my glass and Angela followed suite silently. Katie meanwhile dug the heel of her boot into Max's back.

Around half an hour later, Angela was officially drunk while Katie and myself were getting there. Max, on the other hand, was completely sober and still being used as a footstool. Anyway, if I thought Angela was annoying sober, I should have met her drunken persona. _She just didn't shut up._

Even when she was dancing like a complete twat to the radio, as she was then, she just couldn't shut her mouth. "So Hopey, how's training going? How big are your breasts Hopey? How's living with Matt, Hopey? Do you like me Hopey? Do you? Do you? Do you? Do you like me Hopey? Do you?"

Katie and myself had tried to talk to one another over the racket Angela was created, but it was a vain attempt. Every time we'd have a conversation going, she'd barge in or fall over onto the table as she tried to retrieve her drink or _something_. It was all so annoying.

Eventually I got fed up of all the questions and stood up to talk to her at face level. More like scream than talk, actually. I couldn't help it, the frustration and fury was at a boiling point and it just had to spill over.

"No, I don't like you _Angie_! No one here likes you, _Angie_! You're only here because I didn't want to be rude, _Angie. _Hell, even Matt doesn't like you, _Angie_."

Of course, the last statement was purely theory and hopeful wishing on my part. The rest, however, was completely one hundred percent truth.

"_Lying bitch_!" Angela spat her words at me and I grinned evilly. She knew it was true, and I like to think she thought the last statement was true, too.

"Really? If I'm lying, then why did Matt and myself sleep together last night?" I threw out my chest in triumph. Technically that was true, too. We did sleep and it was together! I heard Katie cackling again and I tried not to smile or let my gaze fall to her at all.

Angela stumbled as she swung her hand at me. Luckily she was too drunk already to have any kind of aim and the slap was so off-target and slow that I caught her arm easily and began twisting it, which she didn't like whatsoever. Her free hand swatted at mine that was holding her and eventually I let her go and pushed her to the ground.

"Come on," I said to Katie, offering her my hand. "Let's go out."

She took my hand and I helped her stand up. With vodka bottle in hand, she turned to Angela and snarled, "you'd best not be here when we get back."

.&.&.&.

We stumbled around town for the next hour, taking sporadic sips from the bottle of vodka and eventually getting well on our ways to being drunk. It was now nearing midnight and I'd lost my top somewhere. I always do that when I have vodka in me, something about it makes me want to shed clothes like dead skin.

Arm-in-arm, we eventually stopped off at a house that had originally been our destination. It was only a few blocks away from Katie's house but we had been too wrapped up in glory and triumph to get there to begin with and had instead wandered around and gotten lost.

I took to the steps, there were only three small ones but it seemed like climbing a mountain due to the state I was in and both Katie and I burst out in fervent giggles with every fall I took on every step. Then there was a ramp heading to the front door which I walked as if it were a tight rope, but with less balance.

No lights were on in the house and I could hear Katie giggling to herself as she also tried to master the ever-so-tricky stairs. I rang the doorbell and kept ringing until a light came on in the hall and a shadow passed over the glass on the door. It opened and Cat answered, with her hair wild and standing on end and dressed in a nice lingerie number. I don't really remember what it looked like, but I know that I thought it looked hot and sexy.

"'Ello darlin'," I slurred, leaning forward and wrapping my arms around her. Katie soon joined me in the hug, even though she didn't actually know Cat at all.

"What the fuck is going on?" Cat asked, pushing us off of her grouchily. Katie slumped against the door frame and I fell against Katie, making us giggle stupidly some more. I slowly lifted myself off my best friend and leaned forward to Cat so I could whisper to her.

"I loves ya ish whatsh goings on," I giggled some more and Cat just smiled. She helped me to stand up straight and I repayed her by grabbing a handful of her breasts, another thing I love to do when I have vodka in me. I really have a thing about other women's boobs when I'm drunk, don't know why. "You hash lovely boobiesh," Katie giggled at that and I joined in too. Cat just nodded as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I know," she said with a grin. "Now go home, I need my beauty sleep."

She didn't leave it up for debate, as she detached me from herself and quickly shut the door on us and the house went back to black. I giggled as I pulled Katie down the ramp and we fell down the stairs and lay on the pavement like a pair of hobo's.

"Shouldsh we go backsh," I asked my cohort and she nodded slowly as she closed her eyes and attempted to fall asleep on the street. My foot quickly kicked her in the shin and she woke up and kicked her feet into the air to ward off whatever fiend had tried to harm her.

We ended up not being able to stand back up and so actually _crawled _the few blocks back to Katie's house. Thankfully there were no stairs leading to Katie's and we'd apparently left the front door wide open. We crawled in together, having a giggle when we got stuck in the doorway because our asses were too big combined to fit through.

When we got inside we were both obviously puzzled by the low moaning noises coming from her living room. So, we crawled slowly to the door of the room and peered in from our low station. What we say shocked me to the core.

There was Angela, on her back, writhing and moaning loudly into Max's mouth as he was atop her grinding his hips into hers. Katie seemed to sober up instantly and shot into the room, pulling Max off forcefully by his hair and screaming "BAD DOG!" at him over, and over.

Angela just stared at me as I slowly crawled into the room, an evil little grin on her face. Obviously she thought she'd got one over on Matt and myself for 'sleeping' together.

Oh, foolish little Angela. No wonder no one likes you.

.&.&.&.

_Author's note: _Dun dun dun! He he, I love this chapter personally and I hope you do, too. As usual, thank you to my lovely reviewers faither (STOP CHANGING YOUR NAME!!!), ChainGangShort54 and Angelwilliamsfan. Also, anyone who's even read this story and those who have favourited/alerted thanks go out to you, too. Don't be shy to review me by the way, even if it's criticism, how am I supposed to get better if I don't know what I'm doing wrong? Thanks for reading!


	5. The Vegas Confessions

"So, have you heard from Angela today?" I turned my head to Matt and muted the TV, all it had on it was Power Rangers Jungle Fury anyway. Don't ask.

"No," he answered back quickly as his eyes widened in dread. "Should I have? Did something happen to her?"

Bless him. He's so sweet and innocent, obviously madly and deeply in love with Angela and quite frankly she doesn't deserve him. Especially after last night.

"No I suppose not, I was just wondering how she's doing after getting so bloody drunk last night." Relief washed over his face and he grabbed the remote and turned the volume back on. His goofy grin which I loved so God damn much spread over his face and I myself smiled. For a few minutes, I half watched him and half thought of the events that had occurred that morning.

Flashback – the morning after the Vodka Night

_I woke up with a pounding headache in a strange bed and strange house. Next to me long hair flowed over a pillow and Katie was snoring in her sleep and occasionally talking incoherently, although I gathered for the most part that she was threatening Max and Angela in her dreams. Despite my hangover, that made me smile greatly._

_Silently, I slipped out of Katie's bed and stood up to stretch. I noticed that I was still fully clothed as I glanced into one of the mirrors adorning the walls. God, I looked terrible. Make up was smudged all over my face, my hair was completely wild and crazy and my clothes looked like I'd slept in them. Well, I did sleep in them, but I didn't want to look like I had. That's just not sexy._

_I turned and walked towards the door to her room, my throat was so sore it was almost killing me. I needed a drink; any drink, just not an alcoholic one. Soon I was stopped in my tracks by something large and unmoving on the floor, I glanced down and saw Max the slave boy lying face-first on the ground. His uniform from the night before, a pair of boxers, was gone and in its place was roped binding his arms together behind his back and forcing his legs together. There was also a ball gag planted firmly in his mouth. On his back and buttocks there was cuts, obviously fresh and a few still bleeding slightly._

_In the distance of my mind, I vaguely remembered Katie binding him up and whipping him repeatedly as punishment for his sins with Angela. He'd enjoyed it thoroughly. Katie was VERY kinky, it seemed._

_I groaned and ran a hand through my hair as I stared at the man blocking my path to the door. My foot shot out and I kicked him in the ribs, catching myself by surprise. "You OK?" I asked groggily. Max's eyes shot open and he looked up at me with a mix of terror and desire on his face. He nodded and I shrugged. Max likes pain, I'll give him some._

_My foot again found it's way to Max and I dug my heel into his back as he screamed into his gag. I stepped over him, making sure to press my entire foot into his back, then continued to the door and swung it open as I left a rather tortured Max on the ground grunting with what I hope was pain and not pleasure. I had a sneaky feeling it was the latter._

_In the kitchen, I set the cold water tap on gently and put a glass underneath it. I don't think I could have handled a loud gushing stream of water at that point. My handbag was on the table, I picked it up and pulled out some pain killers and popped two of them out of the casing. I put the tablets in my mouth and gulped down a large mouthful of water and swallowed, grimacing at the taste of the pills._

_The water went down a treat and I set about putting bread into the toaster and searching for the butter in the fridge. Personally I don't like cold butter, it's so hard to spread and rarely melts properly, but it was Katie's home and beggars can't be choosers. I was just about to butter my toast when there was a knock on the front door. Knowing Katie wasn't going to be up any time soon, I went to answer. The clock in the hallway said it was just coming up to noon, I'd eventually fallen asleep at 6am. Not a bad night's sleep considering it was a drunken night and Katie was punishing Max into the early hours of morning._

_Angela was at the door and I tried shutting it as soon as I saw her, but she stopped me from shutting it with her foot._

"_Hopey, please let me in? We need to talk!"_

"_No, we don't," I grunted as I pushed all my weight against the door to try and shut it. It was pretty much impossible. Damn you, well made kinky boots. Damn you all to hell. "Just bugger off, Angela."_

"_Can you at least promise me something?" she called out from the opposite side of the door._

"_Well, that all depends on what it is." I gave up on trying to shut the door on her, but kept it firmly closed. I couldn't stand to see her face; I knew that if I did I would honest to God destroy her._

"_Just... don't tell Matt, okay? I want to tell him. And I will! I promise I will. Please, just let me tell him?"_

_Thank God she couldn't see me, because a hugely evil grin spread over my face the instant the words left her lips. That worked for me, I wouldn't look like the Wicked Bitch of the West to Matt. She'd be playing that role. I sighed loudly, pretending it was a tough decision for me while trying not to giggle or laugh._

"_Oh, fine. I'll give you three days to tell him and if you don't by then, then I will and I really won't be kind. Understand?" She did._

End Flashback

"My ex cheated on me, you know," I said to Matt as I tucked a strand of hair behind my right ear. He looked at me out of the corner of his eyes, but didn't say anything. Obviously I'd made him uncomfortable.

"His name was Derek," I laughed. "Sexy name, right? It was a thrill to call out during sex. Anyway, my ex-friend Chantelle was the one who stole him from me. I didn't love him, though, so it really didn't matter from that standpoint. What hurt was the fact that both of them had betrayed me when I counted them highly in my life. I got nasty after I found out, I didn't trust anyone for over a year."

Matt shifted next to me on the couch and stayed silent. "I just don't want you to end up like that when you find out," I blurted out. Oops.

"What the hell do you mean?" he asked, narrowing his eyes and glaring at me through the thin slits. I gulped and turned my attention away from him to hide my blushing. The Power Rangers were arguing about pizza.

"I don't mean anything. It's just a phrase in England." I didn't like lying to him, but it had to be done. Silence passed over us and after a few seconds of staring at me suspiciously, he looked towards the TV and we stayed silent for a good few minutes.

"Has Angela cheated on me?" he asked me suddenly. More silence.

"She loves you very much," I stated.

"That doesn't answer my question, has she?" he asked, not peeling his eyes away from the TV once. I didn't either. I could hear the crack in his voice as the emotions began to set in already.

"It really depends on what you count as che-"

"Has Angela cheated on me or hasn't she, Hope?"

"It... it was nothing, honestly. A drunken kiss with Katie's pool boy, she thought he was you." Again I hated lying, but it had to be done. I couldn't afford to ruin our friendship when we were just starting to get closer and confide in one another.

We were silent together again, but it didn't feel uncomfortable any more. Angela wasn't seen by either of us that day.

.&.&.&.

"The following contest is a singles match and it is for the opening round of the second Queen of FCW tournament," I announced in the middle of the ring as the fans surrounding the ring began cheering. Music started over the announcing system and I watched as the cameras all rushed to pick up a view of the entering diva, my on-screen 'best friend' Wesley Holliday. It was certainly interesting to watch the process from this side of things. Wesley got up onto the ring apron and posed in her cowgirl hat as the fans were torn on whether to cheer or boo the supposedly heel diva.

"Introducing first, from Ocala, Florida, the second best FCW diva behind myself, Wesley Holliday!"

Wesley got into the ring and her music suddenly stopped. Another tune rang out across the hall and the fans all got to their feet to cheer for the opponent coming out. However, Wesley and myself leered at the diva making her entrance. "And her opponent, from Hong Kong, China; she is the reigning Queen of FCW and the biggest whore on the roster, Miss Angela Fong!"

The fans booed my 'special' announcing and I just attempted an innocent look. Unluckily for me, I can never really look innocent. Angela got into the ring, not even looking at me. She'd avoided being in the locker room when I was, as well as anywhere else backstage. If I saw her it was only fleetingly and she hadn't stopped once to even say 'hello'. I wasn't complaining.

I took my time leaving the ring and sat on a steel chair at ringside next to the announcers table where Scotty Goldman, Dusty Rhodes and Josh Mathews were calling the action. I noticed Scotty kept glancing at me and smiling, but I ignored him.

The match was over in a few minutes with Angela coming out the victor. As soon as the ref started counting on the final pin, I kicked off my stilettos, grabbing one in my hand and dashed into the ring. Angela stood up with the referee raising her hand up in the air and I ran at her from behind, clocking her on the back of the head with my shoe. She fell to the ground and I viciously grabbed her hair and tugged her up to face me, my knee digging into the middle of her back as I did. Screams escaped her mouth and she tried to claw at my arms to get me off of her, but the script had to be followed. I threw her face back onto the mat with force and stood up. As soon as I was up, I spat on her before I walked over to the tunbuckles and began unstrapping the top pad as Wesley stood on Angela's hair and used her arms to pull her up.

The referee was trying desperately to help Angela out of the situation as her screams continued to fill the air, much to the fans dismay. I shoved Wesley off of Angela and together we hoisted her up. Just as we were about to punish her some more, this time using the exposed turnbuckle, Jenny Cash came running out from the back and stormed into the ring. She hit me with a clothesline, then connected with a drop kick to Wesley. We both quickly rolled out of the ring, pretending to be scared of the big bad diva. I was handed a microphone and I raised it to my lips, glaring at Jenny who was now tending to Angela.

"There's your bloody winner and the first diva onto the second round, Miss Angela Fong. Cash, it's me and you next week in this stupid tournament, so you better watch your bloody back!" I threw the microphone down on the ground and Wesley and myself escaped into the back. A few wrestlers approached us as we went to the refreshments table to get some water and complimented us on our performances out there which I was grateful for. It's always nice knowing you're doing a good job.

"Hopey?" I heard as I downed a little plastic cup of water. I groaned inwardly and turned to Angela, plastering a fake smile on my face. As soon as I saw the legitimate pain on her scrunched up face, my smile turned completely real.

"Yeah, Angela?" I answered politely. Nobody at work needed to know about our personal lives and real rivalry, did they?

"I'm going with Matt to the ECW taping tomorrow night in Vegas for a little time alone. I just wanted you to know I'm going to tell him about that _thing_ you wanted him to know after he's finished at the taping. Is that okay?"

To begin with I didn't get it. Call me dumb, but I didn't. Then it dawned on me and my eyes widened in shock. "Oh. Oh, oh yeah. That's uh.. brilliant. Have fun, Angela, I hear Vegas is great. Make sure you tell him, though."

"I will," she said softly with a sad smile. I _almost _felt bad for her. Almost, but not quite.

.&.&.&.

The next morning Matt was rushing around our apartment, filling his suitcase with bits and bobs he had strewn around the place. He was quite messy, but so was I, so it didn't bother me in the slightest. In fact, I'd have probably hated it if he was OCD style clean.

I sat on the kitchen counter, munching slowly on toast as I watched him throw his suitcase onto the table and begin attempting to zip it up. It looked so damn full.

"Do you honestly need that many clothes for one night? I have about the same amount to pretty much live in right now, and I'm a girl. I change my outfit at least twice a day."

He frowned as he looked at me but I just smiled, which caused him to smile too. "I have a lot more than clothes in here y'no," he started, but didn't get time to finish as the doorbell rang. Matt ran out of the room and I heard rushed talking for about a minute. He returned just as I slipped off the counter to go wash my plate up.

"My cab's here," he explained as he grabbed his case and threw it on the floor. "I told him to wait five minutes because we need to talk, Hope."

"We do?" I squeaked from the sink. Surely Angela hadn't told him already? He was acting far too normal to have been told his girlfriend had cheated on him. Maybe that was his way of dealing with it.

"Angela's coming with me to Las Vegas today," I nodded as I placed the plate on the drying rack and turned to face him. He was directly in front of me, we were nearly touching. "I'm going to break up with her tonight," he whispered. My face fell. His lips crashed against mine for a few seconds in a short but passionate kiss. He backed away sheepishly with his suitcase in tow and his wonderful goofy grin on his face again. "We'll go out for dinner or something when I get back, right?" I nodded absently and he left, both of us had huge smiles on our faces.

They were going to have a very interesting trip together.

.&.&.&.

_A.N. _Oooh. =P Sorry it took me so long to update, I've been busy, busy, busy and today's been the first day I've really had the opportunity to sit down and really write something. Once again, thank you to my wonderful reviewers: the regulars faither and ChainGangShorty54 and new blood IloveEvanBourne and ImWithThePack


	6. The Home Coming

"Ooh, Matt's been on porn," Cat said loudly so everyone in the whole bloody apartment block could hear. I looked over at her and smirked.

"You would too if you were dating Angela," I laughed. Cat was sitting at the other end of the couch than me and my legs were propped up on her lap; in turn Matt's laptop (which he'd given me permission to use and I in turn gave Cat permission to use) was resting on top of my legs. Katie snorted from across the room where she was seated on an armchair and watching some Paris Hilton show where she picks desperate fake ugly people to be her so-called best friends. I was watching with her and we were being our usual wonderfully sarcastic selves, making fun of absolutely everyone.

"That's true," Cat conceded with a giggle. A few clicks on the mouse pad later and Cat was grinning like her Cheshire counterpart. "This one looks good. It's called kinky-naughty-sexy dot com. I'm going on it, you better hope Matt has a subscription to this joint Hope, or I'm using your plastic."

"I think I actually fucking love you," Katie blurted out, staring at Cat in awe and wonder.

"You know, you'd be so surprised how many 'straight' girls say that to me," Cat said, distracted by trying to get the porn site up. I didn't take my attention away from the TV and soon regretted it. Katie plopped herself down onto my stomach and straddled me so she could get a good view of the computer screen without too much discomfort. For her, at least. I didn't even see her coming.

"Ouch!" I gasped. "Get yer fat ass off of me." I tried to budge her and upturn her by rolling over, but she was obviously an expert at being on top and it was damn near impossible. After a while I decided to give up.

Katie leaned back, laying on top of me and grinned as she turned her head to face me slightly. "Next time you call me fat, darling, I'll crush your ribs." I grinned and bit her ear playfully as I wrapped my arms around her waist. "Ooh, getting frisky are we?" she whispered.

"Mmm, yes I am," I muttered so as to keep Cat out of our conversation. "But hopefully I'll be getting some sexy times if everything goes accordingly to plan."

She winked cheekily, having been fully informed of the plans Matt and Angela both had that morning as soon as Matt had left. "Well they'd better be people of their words, that's all I can say." With a smile, she returned swiftly to a sitting position as Cat called out her name so they could begin viewing whatever dirty site Matt's been on. I turned my attention back to the TV just as a catfight broke out between two female generic blonde contestants, who so desperately wanted to become Paris Hilton's new BFF. Sad, really. Everyone knows Paris will just ditch the bitch of a winner once she gets the money in her bank account for the next season.

"Oh my gosh!" Cat squealed out excitedly, "it's you, Hope! It's you!!"

"I beg your fucking pardon?" I asked turning my attention to the girls huddled onto my couch with me. The only time I'd ever taken pictures even remotely dirty or pornographic was for my ex boyfriend, and they were long deleted and forgotten. "Can't be me, I'm not a porn star."

Next thing I knew, the laptop was passed from Cat to Katie and thrust onto my chest. I had to peer up pretty far to see the screen and was quite surprised to see the site was one of those "SIGN UP NOW TO SEE CELEBS NAKED" scam websites. Right on the page Matt had been on was a screen cap of my first match in the WWE against Katie where I apparently had a nip slip that I had no idea about. I don't watch my matches usually, see, I get too critical of myself so I steer clear of seeing them. How surreal and idiotic to see myself labelled as a celebrity; I hardly had any fans, those sites label anyone as an A-Lister if they think it'll get them money I supposed. I glanced at the two women who were smirking in unison.

"So Matt's been wanking off to pictures of a nip slip I had?" they nodded and Cat giggled. "Hmm... you don't think that's why the WWE actually hired me, do you?"

"Probably," Katie sniggered as she grabbed the laptop and passed it back to Cat. "Who knew Matt was such a naughty little boy, though? Checking out his room mate online. Cheeky little monkey..."

I grinned and turned away from the girls so they couldn't see. The sofa smelled of Matt. Yummy.

.&.&.&.

At about midday there was a knock on my front door. It was the moving company. They were _finally _bringing the rest of my stuff over from England. Let me tell you right now, don't ever, EVER trust anyone but yourself to move your stuff if you can help it. Not only do they deliver the stuff weeks after they were actually paid to, they break almost everything fragile and you still have to pay them. It's a bloody rip off.

The only consolation I got was Katie's complete bitchy attitude to the delivery men and her 'accidental' kicks to various body parts whenever they bent down. And I must say, it felt weird... almost _wrong _being in my own bed, in my own room. Boxes with my surviving possessions were littered around the bed and Katie and myself were lying on top of it taking a break after a good four hours putting things together and working out where to put everything.

We hadn't trusted the delivery men to do such a precious task and Cat had gone home long ago to view some of the sites she'd found in the privacy of her own home. I wouldn't trust any man to unpack my things, actually. They're pretty rubbish when it comes to that sort of thing. Although, we weren't much better considering most of the stuff was still in the boxes and it'd taken us over an hour to put my bed together. Turned out it was actually rather simple to put together and we had been over complicating everything.

"I'm absolutely pooped, darling," I said as I turned over in the bed to face my best friend. I felt so lethargic, like I'd just been through a string of very long, straining matches all in a row.

"You're such a softie," Katie said with a small smirk, even though her eyes were closed and she was obviously dozing off. I poked her in the stomach and she took all of five seconds to eventually work up the energy to swat my hand away.

"Looks like I'm not the only one, though."

"Mmm," she murmured lazily.

"Want to do me a favour, bitch?" I asked, knowing she wouldn't have enough energy to say no. Again she just murmured. "Be here when Matt comes back tomorrow? I'm pretty scared.. I mean, I haven't heard anything yet from either of them so I don't know... I know he'll do it, but still, I think I need you here... will you?"

Katie opened her eyes and peered at me. "Since I'm such a bloody good friend, love, I'll do one better and stay the whole night. I really can't be arsed getting up, so bollocks to it, I'm not even going home."

I laughed, then rolled off the bed. We spent the rest of the day with me unpacking everything while Katie watched from my bed, which didn't bother me at all because she was helping me to keep my mind off how tedious the task actually was. I really couldn't wait for Matt to come home tomorrow.

.&.&.&.

The next day, Katie kept her promise. She stayed all night, she went out in the morning to get us some lush cakes for breakfast and she even helped me get ready and slip into my little tight black dress for Matt's homecoming. I still hadn't heard anything from either party, but I was still hopeful. Matt wouldn't be a dick like that. I know I hadn't known him long, but I felt I knew him well enough to know that.

It was quite late when we heard the key click in the lock and the door swing open. Katie and myself were sat in the living room, watching TV together in the dark. My heart fluttered as soon as I heard Matt grunting, I presumed it was because his suitcase was so heavy.

I stood silently and Katie gave me a thumbs up and mouthed 'Good luck!' to me. With a deep breath, I left the room nervously yet feeling extremely excited. The hall was dark and I could just see Matt's shape in the black moving about and again my heart fluttered.

Then my heart broke. I heard a female giggle. I saw another shape break away from Matt and as the light turned on, I saw Angela's little piggy face firmly attached to Matt's. They moved as one past me as I fought the tears back, neither looking in my direction until they reached Matt's bedroom door and they burst into the room together, shutting the door behind them.

Katie came up behind me and pulled me into her, wrapping her arms around me and stroking my hair. I didn't cry; I couldn't bring myself to do it, even though it hurt me. Big girls don't cry, do they? Even if they want to. Really, really _need_ to.

"Come on," she muttered as she took my hand. I could hear a regular thumping noise and the same moans Angela had had for Max. I felt sick. So sick. And numb.

Katie lead me out of the apartment and down the street until we reached a bench. We sat on it together and for a while we were silent. I spent the time just staring up at the sky, admiring the moon. Ever-changing but always there, it never lets you down. You know even when it's gone it's still there for you. Always. Not like people, not like men. Men leave eventually and then treat you like they never even existed to them. Pigs.

"How could I be so stupid?" I asked the world in general. Katie just stroked my hand. "Of course he wasn't going to leave her for me. He doesn't even know me. Not really."

"He's a cunt," Katie said savagely. I smiled. "And a fool. Anyone with half a brain can see you're far more of a catch than that dirty little frog, Angela."

"No, I'm the fool for letting him play me like that," I muttered, not wanting to speak too loudly in case my voice broke and the tears couldn't be held back any longer.

Soon I was yanked up from the bench and being dragged down various back streets in the direction of down town Tampa. "You need to have some fun, love. Get drunk, forget about that tosser. You're far too good for him anyway." I wanted to believe her, so I just went along with it and let her drag me away from my troubles. It felt like I was in my own little world, and none of this was real. How could someone I'd known for such a short amount of time possibly hurt me so badly? It was crazy. Fucking mad.

Music boomed out from the building Katie eventually stopped us at, I didn't look at the name of it or the crowd around me as Katie dragged me past a bodyguard (who didn't ask for any ID) and into a packed nightclub. People were dancing around me, having fun and drunk off their face as they danced with lovers, friends and strangers. A small smile broke onto my face as she sat me down at the bar and ordered me a drink.

"Here, drink up, love. I'll be back in a minute, I just have to go see an old friend quickly okay?"

I nodded and put the drink to my lips. The familiar taste of vodka washed down my throat and I downed the drink quickly, desperate for it. Someone, a man, came up behind me and leaned over me, shouting an order at the barman. I looked up to see Scotty Goldman, I didn't know his real name then. He was smiling brightly at me as he sat down and another drink replaced my previous one.

"Hey," he said loudly near my ear, so I could hear him over the loud music and almost-as-loud people.

"Hi," I shouted back and downed my drink again. Katie said I had to get drunk, so I was officially on a mission.

Scotty beckoned one of the bar staff over and told him to "Get another drink for the pretty lady," courtesy of him, of course. He turned to me as I downed my third drink and laughed. Leaning over, he said: "So what's the most beautiful girl I ever laid my eyes on doing here looking so sad?"

I smiled and looked him over. He really wasn't that bad, a bit tubby and his nose was a bit big but he had confidence and the few times I'd watched him on TV he was pretty funny. That was quite sexy to me. Dare I go on the rebound with Scotty? I wanted to get over Matt fast, there was no way I was going to let Angela and Matt get one up on me like that. "I was waiting for you to buy me a drink, of course." I said as I used my foot to gently rub his calf, rising slowly up. His eyes widened and his eyes fell down to my chest which was out in full force in my dress.

"Uh.. yeah.. get the lady another drink!" he called out and soon there was another in front of me. "You'll have to stop drinking like a fish though babe.. I got fired today and you're running a pretty big bill up already."

I smirked and downed my drink again, then turned to him and put my hand on the back of his head and pulled him to me for a kiss. My legs wrapped around his waist and my lips parted to allow Scotty access to my tongue and mouth. It was a hot, frantic and surprisingly passionate kiss that ended up with him paying for our drinks and then hiring a cab from a line of them outside the club to take us back to his house.

For the entire journey, we ate each other's faces and felt one another's bodies until we already knew them pretty well without taking any clothes off. And.. well I'm not a girl that kisses and tells (at least not in that much detail) but we had a lot of fun that night. A lot. Surprisingly, he was quite skilled and knew what he was doing. Wouldn't have thunk it.

I awoke the next morning, completely naked and in a bed with Spongebob Squarepants covers. After shaking away the grogginess that came with my drinking the previous night, I couldn't help but laugh at the covers. I looked over to the other side of the bed and saw it was empty, but I could hear hushed voices out in the hallway. So, I got up and wrapped the duvet around myself and gently made my way to the bedroom door which was slightly ajar, stepping over both mine and Scotty's clothes on the way.

"Dude, you can't come in," I heard Scotty say to someone on the other side of the door as I gently tiptoed down the stairs. "I scored big time last night, I don't wanna screw it up."

"Come on, man," came a voice from the other side. It sounded familiar. "I have something I need to tell ya. It'll only take a second, just open the door so I can show ya."

Scotty grunted something and opened the door wide enough for both of us to see the person on the other side as I reached the final step. The man lifted his left hand and turned it around. A ring on his wedding finger glinted happily in the light.

"I got married, man!" he shouted. Scotty scooped him up into a big hug, but let him go when he realized how unmanly it must have looked should anyone (such as myself) have watched him.

"Dude that's awesome news! Why the fuck wasn't I invited?!"

"I didn't even know we were going to – oh shit! Is that you, Hope?"

"I'm so happy for you, Matt," I said from the door as I watched the man who had broken my heart standing with the man I'd slept with last night. "That's fantastic news," I said cheerfully as I adjusted the duvet to better cover myself. I think the scowl I gave him betrayed my kind words.

.&.&.&.

_A/N_: Hehehe, sorry folks they're not getting together... YET! But trust me, THEY WILL! I promise you that. You'll just have to wait a while for that to happen. I'm not into giving out spoilers, but pay attention to the Queen of FCW tournament that started in the previous chapter as the eventual Hope vs. Angela 'match' will play an incredibly pivotal point in this story that I think everyone will love.

As always, a huge thank you goes to my wonderful reviewers: faither (three chapters with the same name? I R SHOCKED WHORE xoxo love you), Angelwilliamsfan, ChainGangShorty54, JohnCenaFan and ILoveEvanBourne. CGS54 and Lily... you are devil women for having those fabulously delicious pics of Matt half naked as your profile pictures, haha. Michelle likey very much. =P


	7. The Hot Kiss

I wrapped my arms around Jenny Cash's waist from behind and then used all my strength to lift her up into a German suplex. I released her with a grunt, just in time for her to crash head-first into the mat with a sickening thud. With a malicious smile, I crawled across the ring and used the ropes to stand up, giving Angela, who was standing in the entrance way. my most psychotic smile possible. Just so you know, that's pretty damn psychotic.

The match had been going on for four minutes already, mostly with myself dominating and 'torturing' Jenny. It was great fun. As I was on the ropes, I felt an arm hook up through my legs and pull me backwards into a roll-up pin. The referee counted to two before I kicked out and the fans booed me for doing so.

I was the first to get up and ran at the ropes, rebounding into a low drop kick to Jenny's face as she was on all fours. On the outside of the ring, Wesley cheered me on and threw her cowgirl hat into the air in jubilation. I rolled my eyes and stomped on Jenny's back a few times, glaring at Angela who simply glared back with attempted-but-failed authority. Slowly, Jenny stood up and I allowed her as I stalked her from behind. As soon as she was fully up, I kicked her firmly at the bottom of her spine and she fell forward.

I grabbed her from behind, putting her in a half nelson hold, then lifted her up and threw her face first into the mat. She bounced back up due to the springs under the ring and then fell back to the mat on her front, looking absolutely lifeless. I rolled her over onto her back and covered her with my forearm in her face and counted along with the referee as he called the three count.

"The winner of this match," Cat's voice sounded out over the PA system as the referee and Wesley both lifted my arms into the air in celebration of my win. "And advancing onto the next round in the Queen of FCW tournament: Hope French!"

A few minutes later, I was sat on a chair backstage controlling my breathing after having a warm down and rehydrating myself with as much water as possible. I put my head down and swept my hair away from my sweaty face. A shadow passed over me, but I figured it was just one of the production staff doing something near me. It wasn't.

"Hey Hopey!" came Angela's screech from above. I groaned inwardly and decided to act like I hadn't even heard her. "Earth to Hopey! Are you okay?"

I looked up at Angela, feigning shock as if I'd not known she was there at all. "Oh, I'm sorry Angela. I was in my own little world then. Can I help you?"

She laughed, snorting in the process. I always knew she was a real pig. "That's okay, Hopey. I was just wondering if you have to, like, do anything in the next taping?" The next taping was in about half an hour as FCW was doing a double decker of filming this week, which meant I had to do a flurry of house shows for the next few weeks. I didn't mind, I thought it would be nice to wrestle more and get my mind off of things at home.

"Not really," I said as I racked my brains, trying to think. "I just have to sit at ringside with you to watch the diva's match and that's me done for the night. Why do you ask?"

"Oh. Didn't think so, the only diva stuff on the next show is Rosa and Alicia beating Cat and Tiffany in the tournament, right? Oh, yeah what I was going to talk to you about... Well, I was – no, Matt was wondering if maybe you'd wanna come out with us tonight for a meal? To like, celebrate our marriage and stuff. Scotty's coming so he thought it'd be cool to have you along too, just the four of us. Matt's best friend Scotty and... you, it'll be fun," Angela smiled and I could tell she really didn't want to. I smiled back, with even less willingness behind mine.

"I'm not sure if that's a good idea," I started, but never got the chance to finish and state my reasons.

"Please? It means a lot to Matt for some reason," she whispered. Yeah, I'd have bet it only 'meant a lot' because he wanted to rub it in my face that he had played me like a bloody naïve fiddle. "Besides, it'll be a good chance for you and Scotty to get to know each other properly instead of just in the bedroom!" She winked cheekily.

"Fine, sure. Whatever," I finally caved in. With a wide smile, Angela skipped off in the direction of the locker room and I leaned back in the chair to mull things over.

It had been two days since Matt had come back from Vegas with his bombshell surprise marriage. So far I'd played nice, staying away from the apartment and making with the happy faces whenever I saw one or both of the happy couple which was thankfully only a few times. Most of the time I'd spent away from home was at Katie's, but she was now gone on tour with the Smackdown! crew for this week, although neither of us knew why as she was on the ECW roster which was touring with RAW that week. At night I'd taken to spending time with Scotty; licking my wounds, among other things, in bed with him. I couldn't help it, whenever I thought of Matt I still got pretty horny and obviously I couldn't have him and a girl's needs need to be taken care of.

Besides, Scotty wasn't too bad himself and I think he was looking for a relationship with me, which I was admittedly dubious to jump into, but I would. Call it a rebound thing, that's all it was to me. For some reason, I still stupidly loved Matt. He'd made me look like an idiot, stabbed me in the back and still hadn't explained himself, although it was hardly like I'd allowed him to. Yet I still had this stupid little 'thing' for him and it was because this feeling had remained strong even through the pain that I knew it _was _love and not just a silly little schoolgirl crush. Weird.

I got up with a dramatic sigh, earning me a few strange glances from some of my fellow wrestlers and other staff and headed towards the locker room so I could go shower and squeeze into a dress so I could just go out to the ring and sit down. Fun stuff.

.&.&.&.

There's something you should know about me. That is, if you haven't figured it out already. I'm rather petty, in the best possible way. If I feel someone's wronged me, I wrong them right back. But I do it worse, and I pack a bigger emotional punch than they possibly could. It's because I'm British I suppose, we're not really that nice. Cynical, sarcastic and cruel. That's us. But I'm only like that if someone deserves it.

Matt, as it happens, fully deserved it.

I was in my bedroom getting ready for our supposed 'celebration', which was feeling more and more like a double date from a nightmare – and it hadn't even started yet! My lusty red dress was doing wonders for me, making any imperfection invisible, or so I hoped. It looked like it did to me, but that was probably because I was just confident I'd look better than Angela tonight. Not exactly hard to do. My hair and make up was simple, but my lips were a dark cherry red to match the dress and add a little drama. I felt like being dramatic.

I sprayed perfume in the air in front of me and walked slowly through it, then dabbed some on the crook of my collarbone too, both sides. Collecting my shoes for the night, a pair of Katie's black open-toed high heels, I sat on the edge of my bed and began to slip them on which was a little harder than it should have been. She was a size smaller than me.

With one shoe on, I shifted position and began the attempt to put the second on when there was a knock on my door. I glanced at it, wondering who would ruin my preparation. It could have been one of two people, the most obvious was Matt who was getting ready in the room next to mine and the second would be Scotty who was coming over practically any minute now to collect me. Plastering a smile on my face, I stood up and hobbled with one shoe to the door and opened it.

I didn't even bother looking who it was as I walked back to my bed and flopped down on it. Leaning over, I got back to forcing my shoe onto my foot. After succeeding in putting both shoes on, I leaned back on my bed and looked at the doorway. Matt was stood there in a nice light blue shirt and dark jeans. It's so unfair how guys can get ready so simply and easy and _we _can't. Damn them. Still, he looked pretty sexy (as always) so I wasn't _really _complaining. I just wish I could look that sexy without hours of preparation.

"Are you going to just stand there watching me for the rest of the night or do you actually want something?" I asked with a cheeky smile. I wanted to be nice. For now.

"Sorry," he said with a gentle smile, leaning against the door frame with his hands crossed over his chest casually. "I didn't want to disturb you."

I got off my bed and grabbed my earrings, slipping them in and turning to Matt. "Well then, make yourself useful and tell me how I look." I twirled, giving him a good view of me from all angles and then looked into one of my mirrors to check me out for myself.

"Beautiful," he remarked softly. I fought the urge to blush, or kiss him. I wanted to do both.

"Should a married man really be saying that?" I asked. Matt shrugged casually as he watched me sit back down on my bed.

"Probably not," he smiled weakly and removed himself from the door frame. I felt the bed creak as he sat next to me and I looked over at him. He looked sad, but he did a lot lately. It wasn't nice seeing him this way. "We need to talk, don't we?"

"Do we?" I asked, smiling widely and hoping he'd accept my faux obliviousness. Now wasn't the time for a 'talk'. Definitely not.

"Yeah, we do."

"Oh." I looked away from him, taking a sudden keen interest in my curtains.

"I'm sorry," he said slowly. I continued to stare at the curtains, noticing for the first time a small stain on them. Damn, I had to get new ones. Noticing my silence, Matt continued, "I'm a dick. I know that. I promised you something and then did something so... so stupid."

"Yes, you are a dick," I noted as I began studying the ground beneath us instead. I didn't want him to see that I had the beginnings of tears building in my eyes. Why did he have to start this conversation when I was all dolled up? _Bastard._

"I'm really sorry, Hope. I don't know what to say except that, I'm not good with this shit."

I stood up and looked down at him. My gorgeous, lying, sweet bastard. "I forgive you Matt. To be honest, I wasn't really expecting anything to come of what you said." I hated lying, but then I hated people seeing that they've hurt me.

"If it helps," he started, "I don't even remember getting married, I was so damn drunk. What the hell does that say about me?"

I laughed, thinking he was joking. But when I looked into his eyes, I could tell he was telling the honest truth, and it hurt him. I didn't know what hurt him more – the fact that he felt like such a lousy husband or the fact he was married to _Angela._ Personally, I would have been more distraught that my first wife was a hybrid of human and pig. But that's just me.

"Do you want a medal or something?" I asked, sarcasm oozing from me. I smirked triumphantly as he frowned.

"Hope, don't be so-" I turned my back on him, strutting over to the door confidently. I wanted to leave, go wait outside for Scotty or something. It was _vital_, I'd just won a small battle. Matt felt crap, I felt great. Serves him right.

However, my journey to the door was stopped by a large hand wrapping around my wrist. It was tight, and the next thing I knew, I was pushed roughly up against the wall with a loud 'thud'. Luckily the walls were paper thin and it didn't hurt at all. Matt pinned my arms above me and scowled down at me. For a moment, I allowed myself to show the slightest hint of fear before masking it with a stony expression.

"Why are you being such a bitch?" he growled. I had to admit, I was kind of liking angry Matt. The way his muscles bulged in his shirt and he breathed heavily, it was all rather erotic. Quite sexy.

I ignored his question and instead glared up into his eyes. "You're hurting me, Matt."

Shock and realisation seemed to course through him and within seconds my hands were free again, but I was (willingly) still trapped against the wall by Matt's body. He sighed and rested his forehead on mine, looking down into my eyes. "I'm sorry," he whispered before his lips pressed against mine. I acted quickly, furiously, and pushed him off of me. My hand reared back and I slapped Matt squarely on the cheek. He recoiled and I did the same again, but with the other hand to the other cheek.

"How _dare _you!" I screamed. "You're fucking married!"

Matt opened his mouth, to apologize I suppose, but he never got to. I lunged on him, pressing my mouth to his and slipping my tongue inside him. His tongue readily and rather enthusiastically responded to mine. He soon had me pressed up against the wall again, our lips never parting.

I placed my hands under his shirt, running my finger tips over his impressive abs as his hand ran through my hair, pulling on it slightly to pull my head back. He nibbled my bottom lip, pulling it with his teeth gently as I wrapped my legs around his waist. I didn't know what I was doing as I ripped open his shirt and landed my lips on his neck, sucking and nibbling away at his skin. There was a haze of red lust clouding the both of us.

His hand found my breast and he cupped it roughly as we once again kissed passionately. I could feel his throbbing member through the material of our clothes and I _needed _it so badly. My body ground against his groin as he slowly ripped my dress from my body. I didn't care. I wanted him. My dress fell to the ground, next to Matt's shirt.

I undid the button on his jeans, slid the zip down and he allowed them to fall to the ground. We parted from one another's lips and both smirked as I reached into his boxers. My hand tentatively took a hold of his large member and our eyes met for a brief moment.

_DING DONG DING DONG_

I jumped off of Matt as soon as I heard the doorbell ringing and turned away. I wiped my hand, that had only a few seconds ago been on Matt's manhood, on my leg desperately, I needed to get rid of the thoughts and germs. Shame ran through me. I'd just almost cheated, and with a married man! Scotty and Angela hadn't entered my thoughts once, all I had cared about was having Matt inside of me. Thank God the doorbell disrupted us.

"That will be Scotty," I said, crossing my arms over my chest and refusing to look at him. Matt came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I could feel his rock hard member pressing into my back.

"You should leave him," he whispered into my ear before nibbling at it. I pulled away. "I'll leave Angela. We'd be great together."

I was tempted to take him up on his offer. So very tempted. But I didn't want to be _that woman_. You know, the one that wrecks homes and breaks everyone's hearts. Do it once and the stigma follows you for eternity. Besides, he was probably just horny and wanted in my panties. Men will say anything to get a woman in bed.

"No. That's your dick talking. We can't," I pushed his hands away from me and walked across the room. "Tell Scotty I'm not feeling well, that I'm sorry but I really can't come out tonight. Tell him I'll see him tomorrow."

Matt frowned, but pulled his jeans back up and fastened the button again. "Fine. But if you're not going to the celebration dinner then I'm not either."

_DING DONG_

"Yes, you are, Matt. You can't screw what you have with Angela up," I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. Why does love and life have to be so complicated? "Now go answer the door, and don't let him come see me. I can't be dealing with that. Not tonight, not now."

Matt sighed too, looked at me for a few moments, then left without another word. I busied myself cleaning up after Matt and myself, discarding our now ruined clothes and waited until I heard the front door slam shut ten minutes later. The apartment was silent. Bliss. I took my cellphone and sent Katie a message as I smiled.

'Matt so wants me.'

.&.&.&.

_A.N.: _Gosh, I'm blushing like a nun caught playing with herself after writing that little scene between Matt and Hope, haha. I've never written a sexy scene before, eeek! Anyway, I'm sorry for the wait. Really, I am. I started a new job and it needed my time and attention foremost, but things are slowing down now and I'll be able to write a bit more I'm hoping so there shouldn't be another huge wait between this chapter and the next. Don't hold me to it, but I'm going to really try for an update within the next week.

Again, I'd like to point out that while this wrestling side of things may seem a little silly, there is a reason behind it. The match between Angela and Hope will be a major thing within the plot & story so please bare with me there!

As usual I would like to thank the wonderful people who review this story: faither (still the same name? Omgee!) JohnCenaFan, BournePriceless54, angelwilliamsfan, IloveEvanBourne, Straight Edge Queen and Alexa. To Alexa: don't worry, I plan on having this story be a slow burner!


	8. The Drunken Divas

My mind raced as I watched him, completely naked from the waist up and only a few feet away from me. Eyes drawn to his perfected abs, I fought the urge to drool as I watched a bead of sweat run slowly down the middle of his stomach. He noticed me staring and winked, licking his lips in the process. Such a tease. I looked down, noticing that I could clearly see his manhood bouncing happily as he ran on the treadmill. It had been in my hands only four days before, and my mind hadn't forgotten about it whatsoever. The thick shaft had been in my thoughts and dreams relentlessly since.

We were at the gym, that is to say, Matt, Scotty, Angela, myself and a few other wrestlers from FCW. A big 'friendly' thing where we pulled names out of a hat and whoever we were partnered with, we were to work out with that person and spot for them. Through sheer luck, I got Matt, and he was using the opportunity to make our workout far more friendly than intended. I had been grudgingly resisting him for well over an hour, possibly two, I'd lost track of time. When his hands had been all over me earlier as he tried to show me the 'correct' position to be in for one of the machines, I hadn't enjoyed it and I most certainly hadn't touched him up when it was his turn. Okay, maybe I did. But only a little. I swear.

He turned off his machine and it slowed down gently before coming to a complete stop, but I kept running on mine, my eyes fixated on the hunk. Grabbing his water bottle and towel, Matt stepped off his machine and took a sip of the water as he began wiping the sweat away from his body. He reached down with the towel, dipping into his shorts and pulling them slightly, cleverly exposing his manhood in a way that only I could see it.

My mind stopped as I stared, as did my legs, and soon I was on the ground near my machine staring up at the lights as numb pain shot through the back of my head and also my ass. Damn him. I was dazed out of it for a few moments, not knowing who or where I was, but I soon snapped out of it to see a concerned Matt above me, with the giggling duo of Scotty and the _thing _Angela behind him.

"Argh... you fucking wanker," I mumbled as I gently pressed my hand against the back of my head where it hurt. "What did you do that for?"

"Sorry, sorry," Matt whispered. I glared at him, then looked past him and glared at Angela and Scotty.

"And what the fuck are you two laughing at?" I snapped, mostly at Angela. I couldn't stand that bitch laughing at me, ooh, if only she knew what I'd done with her man. She wouldn't be laughing then. No, she'd be crying her eyes out. That or she'd slit my neck. I would if I were in her position, which is why I turned Matt down and had been continuing to do so since he had offered we break up with out respective partners.

Angela shrugged and stopped laughing, but her grin remained. Scotty seemed to sober up, and soon he was kneeling on the other side of me and leaning in close. "Are you hurt, baby?" he asked. I wanted to punch him for being so nice.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine."

"Good," he said with a little smirk. "Oy vey, you went down harder than my Great Aunt May at her 75th birthday party. That old bird loves her some drink and young guys. She thought she could seduce a seventeen year old by rolling around on the ground with her skirt hitched up to her waist... oy vey, the memories..." I stared strangely at Scotty and was glad to notice I wasn't the only one. Matt and Angela were, too, as was a couple who had just walked past us.

"Can I go have a shower yet?" I didn't wait for an answer and stood up using a machine for support. My ass was really starting to ache, and it was showing with how precariously I was standing.

"You need some help back to the locker room, baby?" Scotty asked, holding onto my arm in an attempt to be sweet and support me to stand. I snatched my arm back, glaring angrily at him.

"No." I accepted a kiss on the cheek from Scotty, then limped past Angela and Matt on my way back to the locker room.

"Hopey!" I ignored Angela as I walked slowly away. "Hopey! Okay I guess you're angry? I'll see you later, don't forget I'm moving in with you guys tomorrow!"

I growled and continued ignoring the bitch. My hands massaged my ass gingerly as I walked angrily. I couldn't believe I'd been embarrassed, all because I was so wrapped up in what Matt was packing. Even if it was impressive to look at, it wasn't worth the humiliation I felt at being made to look like a silly little girl. _Damn him._

"Look at you, teasing me," I heard Matt joke quietly into my ear. "Rubbing your ass like that in full view of the public, though? That's a bit lame."

I glared at him, "at least I didn't get my cock out in the full view of the public and cause someone to get hurt."

Matt sniggered, "you have a cock?"

"Oh, ha ha. Very funny. You know what I mean," I couldn't help smiling, even if it was for a short while. I didn't want to play around with him, he hurt me. I wanted my Katie. Waah.

I stopped and rested against a wall, whimpering in self pity over the pain erupting in my ass. I'd have bet good money that the next day it would be covered in bruises. Slowly, I got off the wall and kept on limping as Matt walked next to me. He snaked his arm around my waist, to help relieve me of pressure and probably to also have our bare skin touching again. I didn't mind either way, I got tingles whenever he touched me and I loved it.

"I feel pretty bad now, you can barely walk. Want me to take you out to lunch, right now? Somewhere fancy like Jade, all on me, I'll make it up to you," Matt offered, smiling down at me. My heart almost melted, he looked so sweet.

"Yeah, that'll be nice. Book it." I smirked as he nodded. We soon reached the women's locker room and he opened the door for me, holding it open. I slowly limped in, looking around. It was empty, except for one woman who headed to the shower almost as soon as we entered and soon disappeared from view. "Can you do me a favour?" I asked as I looked over my shoulder at Matt.

He nodded, "Sure, anything you want."

"Come in and close the door behind you," I said as I reached my locker and retrieved the key from my sports bra, unlocking it and retrieving my towel for the showers. Matt complied and stood dumbly by the door, watching me.

I reached to my top, pulling it over my head and throwing it to the ground, then doing the same with my sports bra, freeing my breasts. Matt's eyebrows raised and he licked his lips as he watched my breasts swing as I leaned down to slide my very short shorts off. I turned my ass to him and looked over my shoulder with a little smirk, which he didn't see because his eyes were firmly fixed on my naked butt.

"Tell me if it looks like there's going to be any permanent damage, would you?"

Matt swallowed and I noticed he had a firm bulge in his shorts. "Er, nah. Don't look like it. Although..." he slowly made his way over to me, twisting and turning his head as he observed my backside. "I think I have to get a close up view to really know," he grinned cheekily and gently took a hold of one of my cheeks, kneading it in his hand. He dropped down to his knees and kissed the other cheek gently, I could swear I felt his tongue for a brief moment, too. "Nah, it all looks great down here."

I turned around and Matt's eyes widened as they spotted my 'lady garden'. "You want me to kiss that too?" I smirked and covered my shaven haven from his view. "Damn, I really wanted to," he said. I laughed and covered up my nipples with my other arm. "God, you're a real kill joy, ya know that?"

"Go order our table," I said firmly, but with a smile on my face. Wrapping my towel around my body, I winked at him and quickly left to go take a shower. When I came back ten minutes later, he was gone and my workout clothes were in my locker. How considerate of him.

I took my time getting changed back into my 'normal clothes', making sure I looked absolutely perfect. We were going to lunch, after all, in my eyes it was pretty much a date without it being an actual date. Just friends, going out to lunch together. Nothing special, but I wanted to look good anyway.

I reached into my jean's pocket as soon as I'd put them on, as I'd stashed my cell phone there earlier. My heart sank as I saw I had over ten missed calls from Katie in the past hour. Instantly, I hit redial and pressed the phone to my ear. After a few rings, Katie answered. She sounded upset and kept sniffing, as if she were crying.

"Hello love," she answered. I heard her snort and sigh sadly.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Well... can't explain over the phone. I need to see you. Can you come?"

"Of course I can, Katie! Actually, do you want to come out to lunch? Just me and you? To er.. Jade?" I wanted to treat her, to make her feel better even though I didn't know what was even wrong. Matt could have lunch with me another day, he was only a little game anyway, nothing would come from out flirting. My Katie needed me!

"Yeah, love. When?"

"Now. I think we're booked under Matt's name. I'll meet you there?"

"Yeah. Thanks, love." I didn't get a chance to respond as Katie hung up. Rushing around, I packed all my things into my workout bag, put on a pair of shades and threw it over my shoulder as I stormed out of the room despite my aching butt. Matt was standing outside, fully dressed and looking sexy, obviously waiting for me. I suddenly felt bad, but then remembered Katie and frowned at him.

"Give me your car keys," I demanded, opening my hand out to him as I waited for him to give them to me. I hadn't really expected him to give them to me, so I was shocked when a jangling set of keys landed in my hand. "Thanks. I'll see you at home later."

"Wait, what about our da-- our lunch?" Matt asked as he followed me out of the gym.

"Oh, yeah. Um, we'll have to go out to lunch some other time," I pressed the button to unlock his car and threw my bag onto the back seat, then got into the driver's seat. Before closing the door, I leaned out and smiled. "Thanks, by the way."

I started the car up and pulled out of the parking lot, driving away as I watched Matt slowly shrink away from view in the rear view mirror.

.&.&.&.

"Who the fuck did this to you?" I demanded, pointing my finger right in Katie's face furiously. Despite wearing large sunglasses and heaps of foundation, there was an obvious large bruise covering Katie's left eye and the surrounding area. She looked around nervously, at all the high class people around us secretly, yet quite obviously, staring at us.

"Calm down, love, it's not that bad," she said as she lifted a hand to shield her face from the people around us. I fumed, tilting my head to observe the bruising better. I didn't want to embarrass Katie any more in public, it was obvious she didn't want any attention right now. So, I sat down in the chair on the opposite side of the table and just stared at her for a few seconds.

"Seriously, who did this, Katie?" I quietly questioned, leaning forward across the table to take her free hand in both of mine.

"Not now," she said, nodding her head to the people watching us at the table next to ours. I glared at them and they sheepishly went back to eating. "Anyway," she said with a weak smile spreading over her face, "I think I should be asking you the same thing? Was it Scotty? Or was it Matt?"

"Did they what?" I asked, utterly perplexed.

"Come on, don't feed me this bollocks, love. I saw you hobbling in here, you've been shagged royally hard haven't you? I say it was Matt, you dirty little minx!" She grinned as my cheeks grew red and I averted my eyes away from hers.

"No," I said quietly. "I fell over, my arse is sore."

"Right," she grinned wide and winked cheekily at me. Damn it, she didn't believe me!

"I'm serious!"

"I'm sure you are, love," I could see through the dark tinted glasses that there was definite mirth in her eyes. I couldn't help but smile, she'd looked so miserable when I'd walked in and now she was so happy. But I _needed _to know what happened to her.

"Please tell me," I pleaded gently. She grabbed a menu from the table and opened it up in front of her, effectively cutting me off. "Oh, come on. I'm supposed to be your best friend, I want to help you!"

"Shall we order now?" she asked, changing the subject quickly. "I think I know what I want."

I huffed and picked up my own menu, leaning back in my chair and moodily looking through the contents. It wasn't like I could choose anything off the menu, the horrible thing about being a Diva is the diet. It has to be healthy. Lots of green stuff that tastes like a used diaper. Yum, yum.

We ordered, both of us having a 'special' salad of the chef's own person design; then we sat in silence together. I watched Katie with my arms crossed over my chest. My eyes were fixated on the bruise; I needed information on it and Katie obviously wasn't going to give me any details. "Please tell me," I prodded gently.

"Please just drop it?" she asked angrily, I sensed a little hurt behind her words too. "I just.. please?" her voice cracked slightly and I suddenly felt extremely guilty. If she didn't want to tell me, I realized, she didn't _have _to tell me. We may have been best friends, but she had obviously been hurt by someone and if she needed a little more time to deal with it before telling me, then that would be fine.

I smiled weakly, "I'm sorry. It's just, I don't know. I care about you so much and it's just so unlike you to be so quiet and guarded with me. I don't know what to do. But I'll drop it, you can tell me in your own time, if you ever want to tell me."

She smiled back, although weaker than my own. "I'll tell you what, if you promise me we'll have a vodka night tonight, I'll tell you when we're a bit tipsy. Deal?"

"Deal," I grinned and licked my lips. It had been a while since I'd had the wonderful taste of vodka on my lips and I was already looking forward to tonight.

Our food came and we ate for a few minutes in a comfortable silence before Katie spoke. "So tell me which one it was who tore you up in the bedroom? Matt or Scotty? Oooh or maybe it was another man? Hope French, you shady lady!" I glared at Katie, then threw a slice of tomato at her before laughing. The bitch. I loved her.

.&.&.&.

It was just nearing 10 pm and Katie and I were in my kitchen. Having already been drinking for a little over two hours, we were both _slightly _drunk. Together, at my kitchen table, we were laughing our heads off. Why we were laughing? We had absolutely no idea, but neither of us could stop. As soon as we were calming down, we'd catch a glimpse of the other and the laughter would start up all over again. My gut was hurting from laughing so much. The radio was playing, but neither of us were playing particular attention to it as we giggled away together.

"Matt did itsh," Katie said, suddenly serious. No trace of a smile was on her face.

"Whash?" I asked, screwing up my face in confusion but still chuckling slightly.

"Hardy. Matt Hardy my boyfwend, or ex, did dish to my fashe," she pointed to the bruise and the drunken me swung my arm out in fury, toppling the vodka bottle and spilling the last quarter of it everywhere. Neither of us cared at this point. Katie began crying and I rushed to her side, leaning onto the soaking table as I wrapped my arms around my best friend.

"Ish okay! He'sh a bashtard anywaysh. You do mush better than that cush!"

"He foundsh my army of boysh. Went mental. Hit me and leftsh me," she blubbed into my shoulder. "I lovesh him!" Then, quite suddenly she jumped up, scaring me to hell the process and began dancing like a retard with her arms up in the air and gyrating madly. "I lovesh this shong! I sho shexy! Wahoo!"

'If You Seek Amy' by Britney Spears was playing over the radio and I laughed dumbly as I watched Katie hump a chair to the beat of the song. I didn't really care about her sudden personality flip; I was too drunk to really care much about anything at that point. I couldn't quite comprehend what she was even saying and even though it seemed heartless, I felt it best to leave a conversation about what she had just revealed for later. Later as in, when I was sober and could actually be of use to her.

Leaving Katie alone, I went to the toilet and quickly did my business. As I was leaving the room, Matt came in through the front door. He looked knackered, but livened up as soon as he heard the radio and Katie's awful singing along to it in the kitchen. I hobbled over to him, giggling again and pressed myself up against him. Almost instantly, I recoiled and dumbly marvelled at my own chest.

"Oh my Godsh! I sho wet!" I patted my own soaked chest and giggled as I squeezed my own boobs, momentarily forgetting Matt was there. "You girlsh are my besht fwends, I lovesh yas," I said to my breasts, giggling and blowing kisses to them both.

"Hope, are you drunk?" Matt asked with his goofy grin as he closed the space between us. His voice shocked and scared me, causing me to jump and stare at him in awe.

"Oh my Godsh, Matt! I'm sho wet! Can you believesh it? Isn't it amashing?!"

His grin remained on his face as he chuckled, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me into him. "Yeah, it is amazing."

"I knowsh a shecret, Matt," I said with a giggle.

"Oh really?" his eyebrow raised up slightly and he brushed some of my hair away from my face. I must have looked a right state, drunk with mascara and eye liner running down my face from the tears of laughter from earlier. I nodded frantically. "And what's this secret, Hope?"

"Ish about Missh Piggy Angela. She'sh a whore!" I giggled and began dancing to the end of 'If You Seek Amy' while in his arms. "You wantsh to if you sheek Amy don'tsh ya?"

"Er, sure? I don't know what that means-"

"You wantsh to f u c k mesh! Gosh!" I interjected furiously. How dare he be so dumb. I was drunk and even I knew that.

"Well, yeah. Of course I do," he grinned and licked his lips, then his expression changed into a frown. "Wait, what do you mean Angela's a whore?"

"Shilly boy," I laughed, hitting him on the chest as I whooped in joy. "Vodshki night, before, she did-"

"HOPE! Where ish you?" Katie came stumbling out of the kitchen. She laid eyes on Matt and me, with me in his arms and her eyes widened. She smirked and wiggled her eyebrows. "Guessh I know what one shagged yoush rotten then don'tsh I?"

I giggled and broke away from Matt, staggering over to Katie and wrapping my arms around her. "I lovesh you Katie. Lesh go do some shtupid shit!"

"Like wha'?" she giggled, eyeing up Matt as we continued to hug each other.

"The piggy'sh moving in tomorrowsh. Lesh make her have to pay, like, loadsh of money to her land lord before she doesh. Lesh break her windowsh or shomething." I giggled insanely while Katie cackled.

"No, you won't, Hope," Matt said from behind me. I could just see his grin, though. He wasn't taking us seriously, which made me more determined to actually do it.

"Yesh she will!" Katie snapped. It seemed like he had made Katie more determined, too. She dragged me by my arm, pushing Matt out of the way with a giggle and we set off laughing madly together to Angela's.

"Hope, come back! You can't do this!" We could hear Matt shouting from the door to our apartment block, but we both ignored him. It wasn't like he was racing after us, anyway.

It didn't take us long to reach Angela's house. Luckily, her next door neighbours were building an extension and there was building equipment out in their front garden. Katie left me singing incoherently to myself outside Angela's house as she searched around for a few heavy but still throwable items for us. She came back with two pieces of a broken brick.

"Seesh that window?" Katie pointed to one of Angela's upstairs windows, the only one with a light on. "Aimsh for that!" I nodded and geared up to throw my brick. Katie counted us down, and together we hurled our bricks at Angela's home.

My brick landed miserably only a few feet away from us, which caused me to burst out in a fresh fit of giggles. Katie, however, had an amazing aim for a drunken person. Her brick didn't hit the upstairs window, but it did manage to smash through one of the downstairs windows. She quickly dragged me into a bush, where we stayed hidden as Angela opened her front door and tore out of it with a baseball bat in hand to look down the street. My giggling must have given us away, as Angela crept over to the bush we were hiding in.

"Who's there?" she called out.

Katie leaned towards my ear and whispered, "on the countsh of three, we runs." I nodded and suppressed a giggle. Angela raised her baseball bat up threateningly as she approached us. "One," Angela was only a few feet away. "Two. Three! Go!"

I watched as Katie ran out of the bush, shoving Angela to the ground as she blurred past. She ran away down the street while I was still thinking about my move. I eventually got out of the bush, too, albeit much slower than Katie. Stepping on Angela's stomach as I ran after Katie, I couldn't help but laugh evilly and stare back at her as I ran. The bad thing is, she saw me too and realization soon dawned on her as she watched me speed away. I didn't care.

"There'sh nothing like shome mindless deshtruction to take yer mind off an abushive ex-boyfwend," Katie said as we approached my apartment block. Matt was sitting on the steps outside, watching us furiously as we approached him.

"Go shtraight in, me and him needsh to talk," I whispered to Katie. She nodded and cackled, probably remembering in glee what we'd just done to Angela. She stumbled up the stairs and entered the building as I sat down next to Matt.

He said nothing for a few minutes, then turned to me, his eyes alight in fury. "You broke her windows, didn't you?"

"Yesh," I said proudly, my head held high.

"How could you, Hope? That's.. that's _illegal_!" He suddenly stood up, leering down at me. I looked at him helplessly. Couldn't he tell I did it for him? Because Angela cheated on him? Because I loved him? Because I was off-my-face drunk?

"I'm shorry!" I yelled as tears began to run down my face. I couldn't stand him being angry at me, especially when I was drunk. I pushed my hands against my face and wiped my tears away but continued sobbing to myself. Soon Matt's arm was around my shoulders and I was pulled into him.

"I'm sorry, too, I guess," he said gently. He stroked my hair as I kept bawling.

"A-Are you mad at mesh?" I blubbed. He sighed.

"How could I be mad at you, Hope?" I smiled and hiccuped. I transferred my head from his chest to his shoulder and closed my eyes.

"I lovesh you," I admitted. "More than yoush ever know." Then I abruptly fell asleep, right then and there.

Matt, not knowing this until I snored quite a while later, replied quietly. "I love you too." I didn't hear him in the Land of Nod.

.&.&.&.

_**A.N:**_ Woohoo. That wasn't too long to wait for this chapter, was it? I hope you all enjoyed it, because I sure as hell enjoyed writing this chapter. The Vodka Night parts of this story are especially fun to write for me, they're basically memoirs of various real life vodka nights all merged into one. I'm a bit of a bad/horny girl once I've had a bit of the old Vodski in me. -blushes-

As always, a HUGE thank you goes out to my wonderful reviewers. This is a new record, as I had 8 reviews for the last chapter. Woop! So as always, thanks to: faither, Alexa, BournePriceless54, Straight Edge Queen, JohnCenaFan, X..x.X, HBKnY2J4eva and Lily. It's much appreciated and I love you all!!

Oh, and I just thought I'd mention that I'm going to be debuting a new story, hopefully within the next few days. It'll be a Cody Rhodes/OC/Ted DiBiase story so feel free to check it out if you want. I have a feeling it'll be a good one. Okay, I'm done pimping.. Hehe.


	9. The Black Out

**A.N.: Okay, since its been a while, I would suggest reading the previous chap again otherwise a few things could confuse you, lol. I'm very sorry this has taken so long.**

.&.&.&.

I awoke around mid-day the next morning, inexplicably tucked into my own bed alongside Katie, both of us fully clothed and probably looking worse for wear. I was too scared to look at myself, but Katie looked a hot mess. We were cuddled up together, both of our faces covered in drool. Whether it was mine or Katie's, I had no idea, but I quickly rolled onto my back and wiped my face clean with the duvet.

Even though I'd drunk myself stupid the night before, my head was gloriously clear of any side-effects from being drunk. Although my memories were somewhat of a blur, I could remember vaguely throwing bricks at Angela's house, laughing _a lot_ and crying on Matt's shoulder. That was pretty much it. I didn't really remember anything that was said, except for Katie's admission that her now-former boyfriend, Matt Hardy, had abused her.

I nudged Katie roughly and she grunted in disapproval. "Wake up," I groaned as I ran a hand through my hair with a sigh. A wave of nausea washed over me and I moaned out in despair. Looked like I _didn't_ fully escape the aftermath of drinking in excess. "Wake up," I repeated, resting my arm over my forehead and closing my eyes.

"I'm awake," Katie groaned into her pillow next to me, holding her hands firmly over her ears. "Bollocks, my head's fucking pounding."

I laughed slowly and turned to look at her, she had her eyes squeezed shut against the small amount of light in the room. "Sucks to be you then." Katie frowned and turned further into her pillow, her hands still securely covering her ears from any potential loud noises. For a few moments, I contemplated on talking to her about what she had confided in me last night about Matt Hardy. However, I decided that it definitely wasn't the best time to be having a deep and meaningful conversation. Both of us were feeling varying effects of hang overs, Katie obviously receiving the worse end of the stick and I didn't think either of us would have been able to concentrate on the conversation at hand fully enough to do it justice.

Instead, I rolled out of bed and staggered across the room to the door. The apartment was mostly quiet except for the TV in the living room. I was headed towards the kitchen to put some bread in the toaster when I took in a large sniff of air, noting a distinct smell of freshly-fried bacon in the air. The feeling of nausea instantly returned and I rushed to the bathroom, barging in and leaning over the sink to empty my guts. Very lady-like.

Looking up into the mirror and into my own eyes, I groaned for the umpteenth time that day and held onto my belly. Hang over-induced sick-fests are just the _worst_. The door opened as I lowered my head, I presumed it was Katie so said nothing, in respect of her own hangover.

"Oh, I didn't realize that you're up, Hopey," came the all-too-familiar screechy voice of my enemy, Angela. I looked up at her and instantly began being sick in the sink again. Coincidence? I think not. "Aw, you're being sick? Good, you deserve it." Angela grinned maliciously and I shot a glare at her back as she turned around and left me alone. Fucking bitch.

Five minutes later, I felt it was safe to leave the bathroom as I hadn't been sick since and I couldn't hear Angela. I tentatively entered the kitchen, being careful not to breathe in too much in case I inhaled some bacon scents and started being sick again. Slipping some bread into the toaster, I ventured across the hall to the living room door and leaned in.

"Morning," I said smiling wanly at Matt, then Angela. My eye caught the time on the clock, it was just after noon. "Or afternoon, rather."

Angela didn't say anything, she just stared stonily at me. Matt grinned at me and leapt off the couch, and followed me back into the kitchen, leaving a disgruntled pig on the couch to watch a film by herself. I grabbed my slightly burnt toast and took a large, dry bite of it and began chewing as Matt came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and nuzzling slightly at my neck. I felt the urge to pull away, but decided against it because... well, because it felt good.

"How are you today?" he asked gently. I shrugged and shoved some more toast in my mouth. "Angela told me you were being sick in the bathroom." I nodded and continued putting toast into my mouth; it's the best way to get rid of a hang over. Dry toast. Not exactly the nicest tasting thing in the world, but it does the trick.

"Mmm, only twice," I said through a full mouth. Matt began kissing at my neck, his shadow of facial hair tickling at my skin.

"My poor baby," he muttered, soon returning to laying gentle kisses all over my neck. I pulled away, slightly irritated at his behaviour considering his _wife_ was only in the next room. Not only that, but she was living with us now. Or at least I presumed so, since it was what had been planned.

"What's with you today?" I asked before stuffing the rest of the toast into my mouth and swallowing it whole, not even bothering to chew it. I turned around, his arms still around me and looked into his eyes as he rubbed my lower back soothingly. Matt smiled, gazing back into my own eyes. He leaned in closer to me, our lips barely touching.

"I've been thinking about what you said all day," he whispered, his tongue flicked out quickly, licking my lower lip slightly and leaving tingles in its wake. I smiled but then frowned, having no idea what he was talking about. "And I just want you to know that I l-"

"Why, what did I say? Was it something stupid?" I continued frowning and soon Matt was joining me.

"You don't remember?" he asked, obviously crestfallen and a little hurt by my mind's refusal to allow me the memories of the previous night.

"Not at all, sorry. I probably didn't mean it, whatever it was."

"Oh," he pulled away slightly, taking his hands off of me but still staying close.

"Yeah," I said, feeling a little guilty that I'd just killed his mood.

"_Get away from him you filthy little slut._"

Both Matt and I turned to see an enraged Angela standing in the doorway, giving me one hell of a death stare. She stormed across the room towards me, her face contorted in anger and her fists raised slightly. Angela wanted a fight. I wasn't prepared to give it to her.

"Calm down, Angie," Matt called out as he rushed forward to intercept her. He managed to grab hold of her and was attempting to drag her away from me, but she was feisty and giving him a hard job of it. Meanwhile, I just stood there at the counter, staring and blinking dumbly in disbelief. I wasn't going to get angry, I had no right to. Recently, I'd been enjoying _her _husband much more than I really should have been.

"You're a fucking _cunt_, Hope French!" Angela shouted over Matt's attempts to calm her down. I could feel my eyes going very wide, and I literally couldn't say anything to her. Not because she didn't deserve it, but because I was in actual shock. I laughed. The hatred within Angela quite obviously increased upon my shocked laughter and she began thrashing at Matt, digging her nails into his face in a vain attempt to get free.

"Fuck! Angela, stop it! You're just being paranoid," he screamed out, trying to stop Angela by holding her hands together behind her back. I frowned slightly. She wasn't just being paranoid really. If she'd walked in just a few minutes earlier, she would have caught Matt kissing my neck and licking me.

"Fuck you both! I can't wait for you to be fired, Hope! It's only a matter of time," and with that she shoved past Matt and stormed out of the room. A loud slam a few seconds later told us that she'd also left the apartment.

Matt took a step towards me but I stopped him with a stern glare. "You should go find her. She's your wife," I looked away from him, not wanting to see him as I fought the tears that were threatening to come up. Even though I hated Angela, her words had still hurt and he was still her husband. About twenty seconds later I heard the front door open and close again. I sighed and slumped over to the table, sliding onto a chair and resting my head on my hands.

It wasn't long before Katie had joined me in the kitchen and was making herself a cup of coffee, frowning at the loud noise the kettle was making as she did so. "Who the bloody hell was screaming earlier? Bloody woke me up."

"Angela," I offered, not caring to elaborate further. Katie took the hint and silently began making herself some toast too. I picked up my phone, which was lying on the table, and slid it up. Apparently I had three missed calls, two from Scotty and one from the FCW Offices, as well as accompanying voice mail messages.

With a deep sigh, I phoned up my voice mail and pressed the appropriate buttons needed to hear the messages. The first was from Scotty.

"I can't believe you. You're a fucking slut." My mouth literally fell open and I looked over to Katie, but she had her back to me. Was today 'diss Hope French and call her derogatory names for no reason day'? If it was, I must have forgotten to mark it on my calendar. I didn't have time to contemplate further as the next message began playing, which was from FCW.

"Hello Hope, this is Steve Keirn here. I need to speak to you urgently about an event that allegedly took place last night, please meet me after the tapings tonight, thanks."

Maybe that was what Angela had meant by saying it was only a matter of time before I was fired. If my amazing skills of deduction were correct, she reported me for bricking her house last night. Fucking bitch.

"Shit, I'm sorry," came Scotty's voice next. "We need to talk. Come round mine whenever you can, I'll be home all day and night. I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to call you that. Oy vey." I scowled and deleted all the messages from my phone, then tossed it back onto the table.

I could tell the day was going to be horrible already.

.&.&.&.

Four hours later and overly large sunglasses, accompanied by some coffee, were the order of the day. My mild hang over was gone but I was incredibly tired and really starting to show it. The pounding loud music playing in Matt's car as we pulled up early outside the FCW arena was helping somewhat; it was definitely keeping me wide awake.

Angela and myself had taken Matt up on an offer to be driven to and from work that day, as he was scheduled to take part in the main event. Stars from WWE's main roster did appearances almost every week in FCW, and this week it was Matt's turn. They were in the front, I was in the back. None of us were talking.

Angela exited the vehicle first, briskly walking to the back and retrieving her luggage from the boot before storming into the arena. I just stared at her with a frown, silently wondering why life had to be so full of drama and bullshit. My mind was soon lost as I stared into space, only to be awoken by Matt shaking me lightly from the door.

"Hope, you okay?" he asked, concern etched into his features. I looked at him, still in my own little world, as if he was an alien invader. Then, quite suddenly, I snapped out of it and nodded slowly.

"Yeah, sorry. Just a little distracted by things, I guess," Matt smiled sympathetically to me, because after all, we were going through this love drama together. He hooked his head around the side of the car and looked up to the arena, then back at me.

"It'll all work out, don't worry," he said with a small grin. I wanted to believe him. "Are you ready to go in yet? Fans are starting to arrive," I groaned and looked behind me out the window. Sure enough, the FCW die hards were huddled up together at the entrance, waiting to be allowed inside so they can fight one another for the best seat. It was always the same group of fans who turned up early and for some reason, doing this made them feel like they actually _knew_ you. Of course, they probably knew nothing about me other than my name and that I was British.

"I don't want to face them today," I mumbled, turning back to look at Matt before resting my head glumly on the car seat.

"Come on," he said, offering his hand to me. "We'll face them together."

I smiled and took his hand, allowing him to slowly pull me out of the car. Still linked together, we made our way to the back of the car and he unloaded our luggage, then we set off up the parking lot to the entrance with it tow. The fans instantly pulled their cameras out when they saw us, and I tried to pull my hand away from Matt's as if suddenly burned. But he wouldn't let me, he kept our hands firmly held together as his goofy grin swept over his face.

We stopped before the fans, simply because Matt still wouldn't let go of me. Personally I just wanted to walk right past them into the arena. They always asked such personal questions, and I could only imagine what would arise with Matt and myself standing before them, hand-in-hand.

Matt put his arm around me, and we posed for some photos as the fans attempted chatting to us. Little did I know, Matt was pulling the infamous bunny ears behind my head. I was wondering why two of the female fans were giggling. Then, it happened, the one thing I had been dreading. The one thing I was worried that if asked, I would start crying or freak out or _something _crazy.

"Are you two dating?" one of them called out from the small crowd. Yet, despite how deep the question cut me, I looked to Matt and couldn't help smiling.

"No comment," I stated, then walked on into the arena alone, feeling much more confident and stronger than before. I knew I had Matt's presence and care to thank for that.

.&.&.&.

A little over an hour later and the entire FCW roster, with accompanying main roster guests, were huddled up backstage listening to a talk by the head trainer, Steve Keirn. He'd been rabbiting on for a good fifteen minutes, and personally I'd lost interest around the fifteen second mark.

I was stood with Beverly, secretly staring at and admiring her shoes and wondering where she'd bought them. I hadn't been proper girly clothes shopping in a _long_ time. Angela was sat across the room, with Matt standing behind her. I didn't even need to look at him to know his eyes were on me almost the entire speech.

"And finally," Steve said, '_yes!_' I thought. "I must remind everyone to be on their best behaviour both in and out of the ring from now on. It's no secret that the WWE likes to fire many workers around this time of the year and considering we've already lost Scott Colton, aka Scotty Goldman and Cat White, aka Saylor James..." '_oh no!_' I thought.

I didn't listen to the rest, it was just a repeat of the basic rules. Although, considering I'd received a written warning once before and I was almost certain I was going to get a warning later on in my meeting with Steve, perhaps I should have.

No, I was far too preoccupied by the news that Cat had been fired. Despite not being the best of friends, I figured she could have at least told me. It did explain why she wasn't answering my text messages and why I hadn't seen her lately. My mood had suddenly gone from being pleasantly happy because of Matt, to quite upset because of Cat's release. Great.

Everyone started moving around me and suddenly the depression was lifted slightly. It seemed as if the pre-show meeting was over. Yay!

Then I saw Steve Keirn making a bee-line for me, and my mood depreciated once more. "Hope," he called out. I smiled weakly, trying in vain to pretend I was happy to see him. His face looked stern, like he wasn't best pleased to see me, either. "Did you get my message?" I simply nodded. "Good, please come by my office ten minutes after the show has ended and we can have a little talk."

He walked away without checking that was okay for me, and I put my hand up to my forehead in a salute and said a very sarcastic yet quiet, "Yes _sir_."

Five minutes passed, and the show was starting. The first match of the night was the diva's in the Queen of FCW tournie. Angela, with Alicia Fox was taking on Rosa Mendes, who I had the duty of accompanying to the ring that night. We'd decided to go for matching colors of red and black, an age old yet sexy combination. I was in normal clothing and Rosa was, obviously, in her ring gear, which I was quite jealous of. It was then I realized I needed to do both some clothes _and _ring wear shopping. If I only had the time and energy. Being in love with another man's husband was hard, tiring work.

We were the first out, to Rosa's music, followed by Angela and Alicia. Myself and Alicia stood at ringside, doing nothing for the most part except cheering the woman we were managing on, although I got to verbally abuse Angela whenever she was in ear shot, which made me quite happy.

The match was soon coming to an end and the referee looked pointedly towards me to tell me so. Angela was on the floor close to my side of the ring, and Alicia and Rosa were now arguing, which drew the attention of the referee. I moved in close, reaching into the ring and grabbing roughly onto Angela's hair, then pulling her neck down on the bottom rope and choking her with it.

I laughed and turned around to face the fans, my arms held out as I cockily taunted them. Angela, meanwhile, got to her feet and ran at me with a baseball slide to the face just as I turned around to face her again. I staggered back, holding onto my cheek as pain seared through it. The bitch _stiffed _(made the move stronger than safe/needed) me! I couldn't have been sure of it at the time, because it was an easy move to accidentally make stiff, but I knew she did in my heart.

Restraining myself from attacking her, I stood at ringside and watched the rest of the match as I could feel my face already starting to bruise. Fabulous. Angela used the momentum she gained from attacking me to do a matrix evasion on Rosa, then got a roll up on her for the three count. Once the match was over, Rosa began freaking out. She slid out of the ring and began brawling with Alicia Fox, blaming her for her loss.

Angela and myself shared a stare down, but I began retreating up the entrance way. She turned away to look at Rosa and Fox, and I ran back to the ring and slid in. Of course, she was ready, because it was in the script. However, I wasn't ready for the stiff right hand she threw at my cheek. I fell to the ground in shock, and she kicked me _hard_ in the face, breaking my nose and causing blood to begin pouring like a steam out of my nostrils. Another hard kick to the head and I was feeling distinctly light headed.

My hands flew up to cover my face and head and I felt her begin kicking away at my ribs instead. Then I heard something _crack_ and my world quickly turned to black.

.&.&.&.

**A.N.: Uh oh, Hope's in trouble and Angela's... a bitch, lol.**

**Again, I'm very sorry this has taken so long. I've not been overly busy, really. Just lazy and preggo. XD**

**As always, thank you to my wonderful reviewers: CenaCandiceLover4Life, Faither, Lily, BournePriceless54, X..x.X, JohnCenaFan, Straight Edge Queen and Alexa. To Alexa: Yeah, they are a lot of fun aren't they? Hehe. And breaking stuff is fun, too. =P**

**I promise you, the next chapter will be up sometime within the next few days; I already have half of it written! I'd like to thank everyone for being so patient with me, and I am again sincerely sorry it has taken me so long to write this.**


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